The British oil company BP more than doubled its profits at the beginning of the year. According to the company, net profit adjusted for special items in the first quarter was around 3.2 billion US dollars (2.7 billion euros). A year earlier it was almost 1.4 billion dollars. Among other things, higher oil production in the Gulf of Mexico has caused disruptions in the Middle East Iran War balanced, the company announced. The oil company operates comparatively small plants in Middle East and is therefore less confronted with the war-related production cuts than the competition.
Analysts had only expected a total profit of $2.67 billion. In particular, the main business, oil trading, significantly exceeded estimates of $2.5 billion with a pre-tax profit of $3.2 billion.
BP had recently spoken of an “extraordinary” oil trade. The results in the areas Gas and low-carbon energies and oil production, however, fell slightly short of expectations. BP’s net debt rose to $25.3 billion from just over $22 billion in the previous quarter.
»Industry operates in an environment of conflict and complexity«
“We are on the right track,” said the new CEO Meg O’Neill. However, for the current year, it expects lower production production due to the effects of the conflicts in the Middle East. In addition, fuel margins would likely continue to depend heavily on delivery costs and the situation in the Middle East. »Our industry operates in an environment of conflict and complexity.«
Due to the Iran war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which is important for ships, global oil deliveries have fallen and the Gasoline prices increased sharply.