BP profits surge

UK-based energy giant and LNG player BP reported a surge in its fourth-quarter earnings boosted by higher oil and gas prices and a rise in production from new projects.

BP’s underlying replacement cost profit, the company’s version of net profit, was at $2.1 billion, compared with $400 million in the same quarter of 2016.

For the full-year of 2017, BP’s profit rose to $6.2 billion from $2.6 billion in 2016.

BP’s chief executive Bob Dudley said 2017 was one of the strongest years in the company’s recent history.

The company launched seven new major projects during the year under review, boosting oil and gas production by 12 percent to 3.6 million barrels of oil equivalent a day, excluding its share of production from Russian partner Rosneft.

“We enter the second year of our five-year plan with real momentum, increasingly confident that we can continue to deliver growth across our business, improving cash flows and returns for shareholders out to 2021 and beyond,” Dudley said.