BP’s profits down due to lower oil price

Oil giant BP has seen its profits fall by 45% in the second quarter of this year. It fell to £720 million (£547m) from $1.3 billion (£0.98bn) last year due […]

Oil giant BP has seen its profits fall by 45% in the second quarter of this year.

It fell to £720 million (£547m) from $1.3 billion (£0.98bn) last year due to lower oil prices and weaker refining margins.

The news follows BP’s announcement the final bill for the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico would be $61.6 billion (£45.6bn).

The incident in 2010 caused an oil spill and killed 11 workers.

BP said it had taken a further charge of $5.2 billion (£3.9bn) to cover liabilities from the disaster.

It added the full year 2016 capital expenditure is now expected to be below $17 billion (£12.9bn).

Bob Dudley, BP’s CEO said: “We are delivering significant improvements to the business that will stick at any oil price. We are now well down the path of transforming our business to compete, whatever the future holds. We now see a much stronger outlook for BP and are focused on growth, both for this decade and beyond.

“Compared with a year earlier, the underlying second quarter result was impacted by lower oil and gas prices and significantly lower refining margins but this was partly offset by the benefit of lower cash costs throughout the group as well as lower exploration write-offs.”

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