BP Quarterly Profit Hits 18-Year High on Refining

BP reported quarterly profit of $8.46bn (£6.3bn) on Friday, the highest in 18 years. The war in the Middle East pushed up oil and gas prices.

The company's underlying replacement cost profit, a key measure of its income, almost quadrupled in the three months to the end of September. A year earlier it stood at $2.2bn. The last higher figure was the $8.9bn recorded in 2008.

Chief executive Meg O'Neill told Bloomberg TV: "It really was a banner quarter for the refining business. We had very strong margins from the BP-operated refineries, we also had very strong underlying performance. We were able to capture the opportunity provided by the market."

Refining carries the quarter

Refining did much of the lifting. The gap between the cost of crude oil and the price of refined fuels such as diesel and gasoline widened sharply, earning almost $47 for each barrel produced.

Global oil prices have stayed below the peaks of the 2022 energy crisis. Pump prices for fuels including diesel have still reached all-time highs across the UK, Europe and the US in recent months, because of severe disruption to refineries in the Gulf region and across Russia.

BP's figures follow Shell and France's TotalEnergies, which both reported their strongest profits since 2022, also helped by refining crude into products such as diesel.

Campaigners react

Climate campaigners said it was outrageous that BP was profiting so heavily from commodities that damage the environment. Jonathan Noronha-Gant of Global Witness called it "obscene that polluters are continuing to cash in on the fallout of the war in Iran, making more bumper profits from spiralling oil prices while innocent civilians suffer."

Danny Gross of Friends of the Earth said millions of households were bracing for a cold winter and struggling with bills, while BP was "doubling down on gas and oil production and slashing investment in renewables."

Clémence Dubois, head of global campaigns at 350.org, said: "The climate crisis is not an abstract future threat. People are facing deadly heat, destroyed livelihoods and growing insecurity now."

Motorists in the UK face high costs. The RAC estimates diesel at 198.79p a litre and petrol at an average 172.92p, against 132.83p in late February, before the latest conflict in the Middle East began.

Diplomats meet in Antalya, Turkey, in just over a week for the Cop31 UN climate summit. Separately, UK energy secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh is weighing whether to allow drilling at the Rosebank oilfield in the North Sea. She approved a licence for the Jackdaw gasfield earlier in October.

Source: The Guardian