(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinionsexpressed are his own.)
By George Hay
LONDON, July 31 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The UK oil major’snet profit beat expectations in the second quarter, in contrastto rivals like Shell and Exxon. BP is generating free cash,doing logical deals and hiking output. A 5.4 percent dividendyield reflects past Gulf of Mexico problems more than futurepotential.
Full view will be published shortly.
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CONTEXT NEWS
- BP on July 31 reported net profit for the second quarterof $2.8 billion, four times higher than the same period in 2017.
- The oil group said it would increase its quarterlydividend to 10.25 cents a share, the first rise since the thirdquarter of 2014.
- BP said profit was reported on an underlying replacementcost profit, the company's definition of net income which stripsout the effects of commodity price movements on its inventories.It exceeded forecasts of $2.7 billion, according to acompany-compiled survey of analysts.
- BP on July 27 agreed to buy U.S. shale oil and gas assetsfrom global miner BHP for $10.5 billion, expanding the Britishoil major's footprint in oil-rich onshore basins.
- BP shares were trading at 573 pence at 0815 GMT on July31, up 1.4 percent.
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(Editing by Swaha Pattanaik and Karen Kwok)
