Oil prices put damper on BP profits

Oil major BP posted Q4 2015 profits of USD 196 million, undercutting analysts’ expectations by more than USD 620 million. The company recorded a profit of USD 2.24 billion over the same period one year earlier. Underlying replacement cost profit for the full year 2015 was down 51%, reaching USD 5.9 billion.

The company is “continuing to move rapidly to adapt and rebalance BP for the changing environment,” BP’s chief executive, Bob Dudley, said in a statement on the company website. Hammered by lower oil prices, BP will cut several thousand jobs over the next two years. The company said it would reduce staff by 4,000 in 2016 and slash another 3,000 positions in 2017.

BP’s upstream division suffered underlying pre-tax replacement cost loses of USD 700 million over the Q4 of 2015. Production over the full year averaged 3.4 million boe per day.
Q4 underlying pre-tax replacement cost profits downstream stayed level year-on-year at USD 1.2 billion. Full year results came out with record pre-tax earnings of USD 7.5 billion.