London (AFP) – British energy giant BP said Tuesday that its net profit more than doubled in the second quarter as the Middle East war roiled oil and gas markets. Profit after tax jumped to $3.91 billion in the April-June period from $1.62 billion in the second quarter of 2025, BP said in an earnings statement, as prices of fossil fuels soared year-on-year. The five biggest Western energy majors — BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, and TotalEnergies — reported combined net profits of almost $47 billion in the second quarter as earnings multiplied on the US-Iran conflict.
The latest reporting period “has been marked by one of the most disrupted periods in the global energy market,” said BP chief executive Meg O’Neill, CEO since April. Energy majors around the globe are enjoying soaring profits from their trades as oil and gas futures swing between big gains and losses on the latest headlines linked to the Mideast war. BP’s total revenue increased 47 percent to $70 billion in the second quarter from a year earlier as the conflict disrupted global supplies of fossil fuels.
BP shakeup – BP, whose performance has generally fallen behind that of its rivals in recent years, had slashed clean energy investment ahead of O’Neill’s appointment as the group pivots back to its more profitable oil and gas business. However, the group does not see its North Sea business as part of that future, announcing on Friday that it plans to sell its North Sea business. “We are not making the most of our potential,” O’Neill said in BP’s earnings statement. “Our performance over the past few years has not met our own expectations, let alone those of our shareholders,” the American added.
Later in a call with analysts and media, O’Neill said that under her leadership BP “will be a world-class integrated oil and gas company…making the tough decisions.” BP, which on Tuesday raised its quarterly dividend by four percent, saw its share price fall 1.4 percent after rising initially in reaction to the earnings update. “A lot of the positivity was already priced in,” noted Victoria Scholar, head of investment at Interactive Investor.
BP said that a core profit measure that strips out certain items more than doubled to $5.7 billion in the quarter, outperforming expectations. “We made good progress strengthening BP’s balance sheet,” O’Neill said. “In recent weeks, we sold our Gelsenkirchen refinery (in Germany), agreed to sell our retail business in Austria, and announced our intention to sell our North Sea business in the UK. Today, we are announcing our intention to sell Archaea, our biogas business in the US,” she added.
O’Neill is seeking also to steer the company away from recent internal unrest. The group faced a shareholder backlash at its annual meeting in April as investors rejected a resolution that would have reduced its climate reporting requirements. A month later, it unexpectedly removed Albert Manifold as BP chairman, citing “serious concerns” about governance standards, oversight, and conduct at the company, which he has denied. O’Neill, who spent 23 years working for ExxonMobil and previously led Australian group Woodside Energy, is the first external candidate to be appointed CEO of BP in the group’s 117-year history. She replaced Murray Auchincloss, who stepped down after less than two years at the helm.
© 2024 AFP
