BP profits slide amid low oil prices
The group posted underlying replacement cost profits - the benchmark industry measure - of 933 million US dollars (£762.8 million) for the three months to the end of September against 1.82 billion US dollars (£1.49 billion) a year earlier.
BP warned oil refining margins would continue to take a hit in the final three months of the year, but it added it expects production to increase slightly in the fourth quarter.
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Hide AdThe group is slashing costs in the face of weak oil global oil prices and sliding refining margins, with the cost of crude at around 46 US dollars a barrel in the third quarter compared with 50 dollars a year ago.
Brian Gilvary, BP’s chief financial officer, said: “We continue to make good progress in adapting to the challenging price and margin environment.”
On a statutory basis, replacement cost profits rose 35% to 1.66 billion US dollars (£1.36 billion) as it ramped up cost-cutting.
BP said it now sees annual costs coming in even lower than previously expected, at around 16 billion US dollars (£13.1 billion), down from the range of 17-19 billion US dollars (£14-16 billion) originally pencilled in.
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Hide AdUnderlying earnings for the first nine months of the year more than halved to 2.2 billion US dollars (£1.8 billion) as its bill for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill surged to 61.8 billion US dollars (£50.4 billion).
It said on reporting second-quarter results earlier this year that it hoped to draw a line under the payouts for the Gulf of Mexico disaster in 2010, with settlements now coming to a close.