LONDON (Alliance News) - Oil giant BP PLC on Tuesday reported a doubling in profit for the first half of 2018, with its Upstream business putting in a particularly strong performance.
For the six months to June, BP's replacement cost profit came in at USD4.18 billion, up from USD1.97 billion in the same period a year prior. On an underlying basis, the figure was USD5.41 billion, up from USD2.19 billion.
In the second quarter of 2018, RC profit was USD1.79 billion from USD553 million a year before and on an underlying basis was USD2.82 billion from USD684 million.
BP posted revenue of USD143.61 billion for the six months to June, up 28% from USD112.37 billion a year prior.
BP last week announced its second quarterly dividend would rise 2.5% to 10.25 US dollar cents, the first time it had increased the figure since the third quarter of 2014.
The FTSE 100-listed company said Upstream had its strongest second quarter since the third quarter of 2014, on both an RC and underlying basis.
Upstream's RC profit was USD3.51 billion for the second quarter of 2018, more than the entire first half of 2017, and significantly higher than the USD795 million recorded a year prior.
On an underlying basis, RC profit in the segment rose in the second quarter to USD3.51 billion from USD710 million.
For the first half, Upstream production was 2.5 million barrels of oil equivalent a day, excluding BP's stake in Russian firm Rosneft, 5.2% higher year-on-year. In the second quarter, Upstream production rose 1.4% year-on-year to 2.5 million barrels of oil equivalent per day.
BP's entire group production for the half was 3.7 million barrels of oil equivalent a day, up 3.3% year-on-year.
Net debt at the end of the half was marginally lower, by USD700 million, to USD39.3 billion while it bought back USD200 million worth of shares over the six months.
Divestments totalled USD300 million in the half, compared to USD700 million a year earlier. Last week, BP announced the USD10.5 billion acquisition of BHP Billiton's US onshore assets, with around USD5 billion to USD6 billion of divestments to be made in future.
Commenting, Chief Executive Bob Dudley said: "We continue to make steady progress against our strategy and plans, delivering another quarter of strong operational and financial performance.
"We brought two more major projects online, high-graded our portfolio through acquisitions such as BHP's US onshore assets and invested in a low-carbon future with the creation of BP Chargemaster."
He added: "Given this momentum and the strength of our financial frame, we are increasing our dividend for the first time in almost four years. This reflects not just our commitment to growing distributions to shareholders but our confidence in the future."
BP (BP.)