- Obama to Send More Troops; Seeks Afghanistan Exit
- GM Removes CEO Henderson; Whitacre is Interim Chief
- Who Were the Biggest Winners And Losers This Year?
- Look Ahead: Markets Count Down to US Jobs Report
- GE, Comcast Complete Deal Over NBC Universal: Source
- US May Raise Rates Before Jobs Recover: Fed's Plosser
- Super Fantasy Christmas Gifts of 2009
- Cramer: Watch Tech Stocks Wednesday
- Stocks Likely Don't Need Santa to Keep Rally Going
- Unemployment to Peak at 10.5%: Moody's Economist
- 8 Stocks to Gain on Obama's Afghan Plan: Analysts
- BofA On Proposed Changes In The Housing Bailout Program
- The Future of The Media Landscape
- November Auto Sales Muddle Along
- Busch: What Obama Won't Say Tonight
- Stick with Equities—Avoid Emerging Markets: Laszlo Birinyi
- Pfizer Chomps On A Carrot
- Predictions 2010: Technology
MOST SHARED
- GE, Comcast Complete Deal Over NBC Universal: Source
- Keeping America Great
- Kohlberg Kravis Bidding for Morgan Stanley's CICC Stake
- Australia Parliament Rejects Carbon Trade Laws
- Toyota Takes Lead Position in Canada in November
- New Incentive To Improve... Your Home, That Is!
- Hyundai's US Auto Sales Jump 46% in November
- Trump: Time to Force Banks to Start Lending
Text Size 
British oil major BP beat forecasts on Tuesday with a 48 percent leap in first-quarter replacement cost (RC) net income, helped by record oil prices and strong profits from punting energy markets.
 |
AP |
Excluding non-operating items, which amounted to a net gain of $96 million, the RC result, which strips out the impact of changes in the value of fuel inventories, was $6.49 billion.
A Reuters poll of analysts gave an average forecast of $5.31 billion for BP's first quarter RC earnings, excluding non-ops.
The oil major said production averaged 3.913 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in the first three months of the year, flat on the same period last year and in line with analysts' forecasts.
Output would have risen 5 percent, BP said, if it were not for the production sharing contracts it has with resource-holders, which reduce the amount of oil BP receives from projects when oil prices rise.
BP's refining and marketing division turned in an unexpected profit, despite lower crude processing margins and lower throughputs at its refineries.
Many analysts had expected a loss.
BP is undergoing a restructuring to simplify its corporate structure and cut costs, in an effort to address industry-lagging operational performance and falling output.
A BP spokesman cautioned that the strong first-quarter earnings did not necessarily represent BP's return to form, saying the results were flattered by a number of unusual items including BP's oil and gas traders having a lucky quarter.
"All the trading activity has gone in our favor in this quarter. This has probably contributed $400 million above a typical result," he said.
A deferral of tax charges in Russia also boosted the bottom line by around $200 million while corporate overheads also took a $250 million dip which is unlikely to be repeated, the spokesman said.
Print
Email
- Will the Fed raise rates? Will the dollar continue its slide? CNBC experts weigh in on the year ahead.
- Goldman Sachs has forbidden employees from gathering in private holiday parties of 12 or more.
- Do you have what it takes to run your own business? Ask yourself these questions.
- Heavily armed pirates in Somalia have set up a sort of stock exhange to fund their hijackings.
- Since its launch in 1998, Google has become a primary force on the Internet. How much do you know about the company?
- A famed author has written all his work on an old typewriter that is now up for auction. The NYT reports.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes