BP BP Plc

By Oliver Griffin

BP PLC (BP.LN) said Tuesday that its equivalent to net income more than tripled in the second quarter, propelled by higher earnings in its upstream business and Rosneft Oil Co. (ROSN.MZ) .

The oil major said replacement cost profit, which is similar to net income reported by U.S. oil companies, was $1.79 billion, up from $553 million a year earlier.

Stripping out one-off items, BP said its underlying replacement cost profit rose to $2.82 billion from $684 million. A consensus forecast of 21 analysts provided by BP had forecast underlying replacement cost profit of $2.7 billion for the second quarter.

Underlying replacement cost profit in the company's upstream business, which deals with oil and gas exploration, increased to $3.5 billion from $710 million.

BP said Russian state-owned company Rosneft, in which it holds a 20% stake, saw underlying replacement cost profit rise to $766 million from $279 million.

The company said it generated $7 billion in operating cash flow--excluding repayments for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill of $700 million--compared with $4.9 billion the year before.

Last week BP acquired BHP Billiton PLC's (BLT.LN) onshore U.S. shale assets for $10.5 billion and said it would increase its dividend by 2.5% to 10.25 cents per share from the second quarter.

Write to Oliver Griffin at oliver.griffin@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 31, 2018 02:48 ET (06:48 GMT)

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