Oil Prices Propel BP's Resurgence -- WSJ
August 01 2018 - 3:02AM
Dow Jones News
Energy producer's quarterly profit soars; Deepwater disaster
remains financial drag
By Sarah Kent
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (August 1, 2018).
LONDON -- BP PLC on Tuesday said second-quarter profit jumped,
as higher oil prices helped the company push its ambitious growth
plans.
The London-based energy producer said its replacement cost
profit -- a metric analogous to the net income that U.S. oil
companies report -- tripled from last year's second quarter to $1.8
billion.
After years of cost-cutting and financial restructuring when
crude prices slumped, BP and other big oil companies are benefiting
from a recovery in the market. Oil prices are up more than 10%
since the start of the year, leading to higher profit and cash flow
for producers.
Brent crude prices averaged nearly $75 a barrel from April to
June, compared with an average of roughly $50 a barrel in the same
three months last year.
BP's production in the first half rose 3% from a year earlier,
delivering on a strategy to return to its former size by the early
2020s.
"I can't remember when it has looked this good," BP Chief
Executive Bob Dudley said.
Last week, the company announced a $10.5 billion deal to acquire
some of the hottest assets in U.S. shale country. The acquisition
marked BP's biggest in nearly 20 years and signaled the company's
growing confidence. At the same time, it said it would increase its
dividend for the second quarter by 2.5%.
BP is on track with its plan to restore growth following years
of retrenchment in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon blowout in the
Gulf of Mexico eight years ago.
Still, penalties related to the 2010 disaster remain a financial
drag. BP's landmark $20 billion settlement with the U.S. government
in 2015 requires the company to make annual payments of around $1
billion through the end of the next decade. Payments in 2018 are
expected to total just over $3 billion after tax.
BP caps off a mixed earnings season for the world's biggest oil
companies. The likes of Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Royal
Dutch Shell PLC all posted sharply higher profit, but for the most
part failed to impress investors who had expected even bigger
windfalls.
Write to Sarah Kent at sarah.kent@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 01, 2018 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)
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