BP BP Plc

By Oliver Griffin

BP PLC (BP.LN) swung to a profit in the fourth quarter of 2018, exceeding analysts' expectations following a strong operating performance across all its business segments.

The London-listed oil company posted $2.72 billion in fourth-quarter replacement cost profit--a figure similar to the net income that U.S. oil companies report--which compared with a replacement cost loss of $583 million in the year-earlier period.

BP said Tuesday that after stripping out one-off items its underlying replacement cost profit for the three months ended Dec. 31 rose to $3.48 billion from $2.11 billion in the fourth quarter of 2017.

A consensus of 20 brokers supplied by BP had forecast underlying replacement cost profit of $2.63 billion.

Total revenue rose 9.8% to $76.89 billion, while operating cash flow for was $7.1 billion.

BP said payments related to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill for the year were $3.2 billion.

During 2018, the company divested a total of $3.5 billion worth of assets. BP said it plans to complete more than $10 billion worth of divestments over the next two years, including plans following its acquisition of assets from BHP Group PLC (BHP.LN) last year.

BP declared a fourth-quarter dividend of 10.25 cents a share, in line with prior quarters after having hiked its dividend by 2.5% last July, but up from the 10 cents-a-share-dividend in the final quarter of 2017.

The company said it expects underlying production this year to rise above 2018 levels due to new projects. Actual reported production will depend on the exact timing of project start-ups, acquisitions and divestment activities, the company said.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 05, 2019 02:41 ET (07:41 GMT)

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