BP 2Q Earnings Flat as Production Offsets Lower Oil Prices

By Oliver Griffin

BP PLC (BP.LN) on Tuesday reported flat second-quarter earnings as a 4% rise in oil-and-gas production offset the negative effects of lower oil prices.

The London-headquartered integrated energy company posted a replacement cost profit--a metric similar to the net income figure that U.S. oil companies report--of $1.78 billion for the three months ended June 30, compared with $1.79 billion in the year-earlier period.

Stripping out one-off items, BP's underlying replacement cost profit--the company's preferred metric--came in at $2.81 billion, close to the $2.82 billion in the year-earlier period. A company-compiled consensus of 20 brokers' estimates had forecast the company's second-quarter underlying replacement cost profit at $2.46 billion.

Total revenue for the second quarter of the year came in at $73.75 billion, down 4.1% on the year-earlier period, BP said. Net profit came in down 35% at $1.82 billion.

BP said its upstream and downstream divisions performed strongly in the second quarter. Production rose 4% to 3.8 million barrels of oil equivalent a day. Underlying replacement cost profit before interest and tax in the company's upstream business--the part of BP which produces oil and gas--fell slightly to $3.41 billion, from $3.51 billion in the year-earlier period.

Operating cash flow excluding payments related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 came in at $8.2 billion, while net debt rose to $46.5 billion, BP said. The company paid $1.4 billion in connection to the oil spill, which took place in the Gulf of Mexico.

The company maintained its quarterly dividend at 10.25 cents a share.

Write to Oliver Griffin at [e-mail]; @OliGGriffin

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 30, 2019 02:42 ET (06:42 GMT)

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