BP’s 1Q profit soars. Production up 9 pct

British oil firm BP reported a significant spike in 1Q 2018 profit, coming out of the quarter with an income of $2,47 billion. This is more than $1 billion achieved a year ago when it posted a profit of $1,45 billion.

Underlying replacement cost profit for the first quarter of 2018 was $2.6 billion, compared with $1.5 billion for the same period in 2017, a rise of 71%.

Upstream reported the strongest quarter since third quarter 2014 on both a replacement cost and underlying basis, BP said.

Bob Dudley, BP CEO, said: “We have delivered another strong set of results. Our safe and reliable operations and strong financial delivery have continued into 2018. Underlying profit was up 23% on the previous quarter and was our best quarterly result in three years. With rising output from our new major projects and excellent reliability, Upstream production was 9% higher than a year earlier.

Upstream production, excluding Rosneft, for the quarter was 2,605mboe/d, a rise of 9.1% on a year earlier, driven by the continued ramp-up of production from major projects, BP said.

Upstream plant reliability was 96%, the best quarterly performance on record. Upstream unit production costs* were higher due to increased wellwork activity in the quarter, but are expected to show continued year-on-year improvement driven by strong operational performance.

Looking ahead, BP expects second-quarter reported production to be lower than the first quarter reflecting the expiration of the Abu Dhabi offshore concession and seasonal turnaround and maintenance activities.

Organic capital expenditure for the first quarter was $3.5 billion, compared with $3.5 billion for the same period in 2017. BP expects organic capital expenditure to be in the range of $15-16 billion for 2018.