24/10/2006

BP announces third quarter profits boost

BP has announced a 58 per cent profit rise in its third quarter due to asset sales.

The world's second-largest oil company earned $6.9bn (£3.7bn) - a rise from $4.41bn last year.

BP also scrapped its 2006 oil and gas production target, saying it would produce only 3.95 million barrels of oil equivalent (boepd) per day this year compared to an original target of 4.1-4.2 million boepd.

BP Group Chief Executive, Lord Browne, said: "The trading environment reflected higher oil realizations and retail margins but lower refining margins and gas realizations compared to a year ago. The third quarter result benefited from significant disposal gains and IFRS accounting effects. Results are being impacted by higher tax charges. The share buyback programme is continuing, with $3.5 billion of share repurchases during the quarter."

During the third quarter, the company repurchased 299 million of its own shares, at a cost of $3.5 billion. Of these, 48 million shares were purchased for cancellation and the remainder are held in treasury. Additionally, shares to the value of $1.25 billion were issued to Alfa Group and Access Renova (AAR) being the last instalment of the deferred consideration for our investment in TNK-BP.

(CD)

Related UK National News Stories
Click here for the latest headlines.

13 January 2014
Sports Direct Acquires Debenhams Stake
Sports Direct has acquired a stake in Debenhams. The company has acquired 56.8 million shares, representing 4.63% of the issued share capital of Debenhams. The acquisition of shares has taken place without the prior knowledge of the Debenhams' board of directors, however Sports Direct has communicated to its board.
08 March 2004
Lloyds TSB profits hit £4.3bn
Hopes of a share buy back by Lloyds TSB were sunk today despite the banking giant reporting profits of almost £4.35 billion in 2003.
26 April 2005
BP reports profit increase
BP profits have announced a rise in profit in their first quarter report for the company's new trading year. The oil company confirmed that its first quarter replacement cost profit was £5,491 million, an increase of 29% from the same period in 2004.
26 January 2010
UK Emerges From Recession
The British economy has officially moved out of recession. Growth during the last three months of 2009 was recorded at 0.1%, a much smaller than predicted trajectory. The economy had shrunk for six continuous quarters, the deepest dip in over 50 years.
17 April 2003
Regional imports suffer £1bn slump
Government figures released today have revealed that the value of regional imports has slumped by around £1 billion over the past quarter. According the Customs and Excise report, estimates for the fourth quarter 2002 saw regional imports dip £1 billion, or 2%, on the third quarter's figures to £51.4 billion.