BP’s profit down in Q2

UK-based energy giant and LNG player, BP reported a drop in its second-quarter profit as it took a $750 million charge for an exploration write-off in Angola.

BP’s quarterly underlying replacement cost profit, the company’s definition of net income, was at $684 million in the quarter under review, down from $720 million a year earlier and $1.51 billion in the first quarter this year.

Analysts on average had estimated BP profits of $500 million.

BP’s production rose almosst percent from a year earlier to 2.431 million barrels of oil equivalent per day helped by new project start-ups.

Net debt totaled $39.8 billion at the end of June, up almost $9 billion in a year, due to continuing payments for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico disaster.

“We continue to position BP for the new oil price environment, with a continued tight focus on costs, efficiency and discipline in capital spending,” said Bob Dudley, chief executive of BP.

BP has “considerable strategic momentum coming into the rest of the year and 2018, with rising production from our new upstream projects and marketing growth in the downstream,” he added.