BP Swings to 4Q Profit, Beating Analysts' Expectations
05 February 2019 - 6:56PM
Dow Jones News
By Oliver Griffin
BP PLC (BP.LN) swung to a profit in the fourth quarter of 2018,
exceeding analysts' expectations following a strong operating
performance across all its business segments.
The London-listed oil company posted $2.72 billion in
fourth-quarter replacement cost profit--a figure similar to the net
income that U.S. oil companies report--which compared with a
replacement cost loss of $583 million in the year-earlier
period.
BP said Tuesday that after stripping out one-off items its
underlying replacement cost profit for the three months ended Dec.
31 rose to $3.48 billion from $2.11 billion in the fourth quarter
of 2017.
A consensus of 20 brokers supplied by BP had forecast underlying
replacement cost profit of $2.63 billion.
Total revenue rose 9.8% to $76.89 billion, while operating cash
flow for was $7.1 billion.
BP said payments related to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill
for the year were $3.2 billion.
During 2018, the company divested a total of $3.5 billion worth
of assets. BP said it plans to complete more than $10 billion worth
of divestments over the next two years, including plans following
its acquisition of assets from BHP Group PLC (BHP.LN) last
year.
BP declared a fourth-quarter dividend of 10.25 cents a share, in
line with prior quarters after having hiked its dividend by 2.5%
last July, but up from the 10 cents-a-share-dividend in the final
quarter of 2017.
The company said it expects underlying production this year to
rise above 2018 levels due to new projects. Actual reported
production will depend on the exact timing of project start-ups,
acquisitions and divestment activities, the company said.
Write to Oliver Griffin at oliver.griffin@dowjones.com;
@OliGGriffin
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 05, 2019 02:41 ET (07:41 GMT)
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