BP results beat expectations despite Angola’s problem

BP beat analyst expectations on Tuesday, despite profits more than halving from the first three months of the year after a hefty charge from an unsuccessful project in Angola. The British oil giant is the last of the world's biggest Western oil companies to report its quarterly earnings. 

The British oil giant's profits were down from $1.5 billion in the first quarter of 2017 and lower than the $720 million reported over the same period in 2016. Shares of BP were more than 3.6 percent higher during morning deals on Tuesday. 

"We continue to position BP for the new oil price environment, with a continued tight focus on costs, efficiency and discipline in capital spending," Bob Dudley, chief executive officer at BP, said in a statement shortly after the second-quarter results were announced.

The company increased its oil-and-gas production by almost 10% compared with a year earlier and has begun feeling the full effects of $7 billion in cost cuts enacted last year, said Chief Financial Officer Brian Gilvary in an interview. The result is that the company now needs a break-even oil price of $47 a barrel, down from the $60 a barrel it reported last quarter.

"We are just doing a lot of the things we said we would do," Mr. Gilvary said.

Despite the sharp slowdown in the sector's activity since the slump in oil prices in 2014, BP is set to launch seven oil and gas projects in 2017 — the largest number in a single year in its history.
Brent crude oil prices averaged just below $50 a barrel in the second quarter, up from $45 a barrel a year earlier and little changed from the first quarter.