Royal Dutch Shell Plc  .com Rotating Header Image

BLOOMBERG: BP Third-Quarter Profit Rises 53% on Higher Prices

BLOOMBERG: BP Third-Quarter Profit Rises 53% on Higher Prices

BP has overtaken Royal Dutch/Shell Group to become the second- largest oil company by market value, by making more than $100 billion of takeovers since 1999. Shell also lost its status after a January disclosure that it had overstated its oil and gas reserves for years.”

October 26, 2004

Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) — BP Plc, the world’s second-largest publicly traded oil company, reported profit rose 53 percent in the third quarter because of record crude prices.

Net income increased to $3.46 billion, or 18 cents a share, from $2.26 billion, or 13 cents, a year ago, excluding costs of holding inventories, the London-based company said in a statement on the Regulatory News Service. Profit was $3.94 billion excluding amortization and other costs, compared with analyst estimates of $4.17 billion in a Bloomberg survey.

BP is the first of the world’s largest oil companies to report a surge in profit in the third quarter because of this year’s 68 percent rally in New York oil prices, to more than $55 a barrel. Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch/Shell Group also post profits this week.

“The world economy’s expansion has continued, despite patches of softer growth in the U.S. and Europe,” BP Chief Executive John Browne said in the statement. “Continued growth is expected across the world economy.”

Shares of BP yesterday declined 4.5 pence, or 0.8 percent, to 537.5 pence in London. The stock has gained 19 percent this year, outperforming a 2 percent advance in the FTSE 100 Index of the biggest U.K. companies.

Sales increased 25 percent to $73.9 billion from $59.2 billion in the recent quarter.

Earnings were hurt by $600 million of costs for environmental cleanups and the write-off of an Egyptian gas rig after a fire, BP said in an Oct. 4 preview of the period.

Output Rises

BP produced 3.91 million barrels of oil and gas a day, up from 3.5 million a year earlier, the statement said. It has a target to produce an average of more than 4 million barrels a day this year, which would be up 11 percent from 2003.

Analysts including J.J. Traynor at Deutsche Bank AG said before the results that BP may struggle to reach the target after Hurricane Ivan forced fields to shut down in the U.S. Gulf and the fire at an Egyptian gas platform. BP missed a target for growth of 5.5 percent in 2002, disappointing investors.

At BP, oil and gas production is rising because of the venture in Russia with OAO Tyumen Oil Co., TNK-BP, created in August 2003. While output is higher, BP receives a narrower margin on each barrel it pumps from Russia than in some parts of the world, such as the U.K. North Sea.

At BP’s oil refineries, the company benefited from wider margins from making fuels than last year. BP owns or has stakes in 23 refineries worldwide, where it processes about 3.4 million barrels of crude a day, or enough to supply Germany.

BP has overtaken Royal Dutch/Shell Group to become the second- largest oil company by market value, by making more than $100 billion of takeovers since 1999. Shell also lost its status after a January disclosure that it had overstated its oil and gas reserves for years.

To contact the reporter on this story:

Mathew Carr in London  [email protected]

To contact the editors of this story:

Tim Coulter at  [email protected]

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000006&sid=a8p82wxJA1us&refer=home

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Comment Rules

  • Please show respect to the opinions of others no matter how seemingly far-fetched.
  • Abusive, foul language, and/or divisive comments may be deleted without notice.
  • Each blog member is allowed limited comments, as displayed above the comment box.
  • Comments must be limited to the number of words displayed above the comment box.
  • Please limit one comment after any comment posted per post.