BP set to report lower profits and revenue as the oil price weakens

BP is expected to announce slowing profits and revenues for the first quarter of 2024, as it wrestles with lower oil prices and weaker refining margins than this time last year.

The oil super major will give its latest quarterly results in an update on May 7, with profit expected to come in at £5.07bn, lower than the £6.79bn at the same point in 2023.

The results come in the wake of former chief executive Bernard Looney quitting in September.

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BP has also underperformed when compared with its peers, particularly those in the US, of late, amid a greater focus on transitioning to green energy than other super majors.

BP is expected to announce slowing profits and revenues for the first quarter of 2024, as it wrestles with lower oil prices and weaker refining margins than this time last year. (Photo by Peter Byrne/PA Wire)BP is expected to announce slowing profits and revenues for the first quarter of 2024, as it wrestles with lower oil prices and weaker refining margins than this time last year. (Photo by Peter Byrne/PA Wire)
BP is expected to announce slowing profits and revenues for the first quarter of 2024, as it wrestles with lower oil prices and weaker refining margins than this time last year. (Photo by Peter Byrne/PA Wire)

Unlike its US counterparts, BP has pledged to hit net zero emissions by 2050, in line with the Government’s energy transition plan.

Nonetheless, the update will come less than a fortnight after four people were arrested as members of campaign group Fossil Free London tried to disrupt BP’s meeting at its offices in Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey.

Protesters had planned to interrupt chief executive Murray Auchincloss’s opening remarks, but they were blocked from entering the building by security teams.

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The update will follow a similar results statement from Shell, which on Thursday announced first quarter earnings of £6.1bn for the first three months of 2024, down from £7.7bn a year earlier.

Analysts at AJ Bell said: “Even though BP has since refined its plan and slowed down its move away from oil and gas, with the result that output is expected to drop by 25 per cent between 2020 and 2023, rather than by 40%, this is still more radical than anything planned across the other super majors.”

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