Has BP Turned a Corner?
BP has reported better-than-expected third-quarter profits of $5.14 billion.
That’s up from $1.8 billion a year ago, when the group took a huge hit from costs associated with the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
BP CEO, Bob Dudley, says the company has reached a clear turning point since last year’s disaster. And he’s predicting that the group will return to output and cashflow growth.
But Reuters Oil correspondent, Tom Bergin, says analysts are wary of the results:
“If you dig a little bit below the surface and look at the underlying results, we see something pretty anemic. We see despite the fact that oil prices have gone up by 50% in the third quarter, compared to the third quarter of 2010, BP’s results have gone down 4%. So we do see a really troubled company. BP is saying that the difficulties that prompted that profit drop, that those difficulties are behind it, but we’ll have to wait and see.”
Europe’s second-largest oil group also says investors will start receiving higher dividends from next year.
Shares in BP were up more than 4% in mid-day trade. But BP is coming under fire on another front…
The board of BP’s Russian affiliate, TNK-BP, is recommending its board of directors consider suing the company for billions of dollars in damages over a failed exploration and share swap deal with state run Rosneft.
Bottom line: Oil giant BP reports strong quarterly results as CEO, Bob Dudley, says the company has turned a corner since last year’s costly oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
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