* Q1 underlying replacement cost net profit $4.22 bln
* Beats analysts' forecast of around $3.27 bln
* Helped by two new oilfields, trading division
* Shares climb 2.3 percent
By Andrew Callus
LONDON, April 30 (Reuters) - BP Plc profits beatanalyst expectations by almost $1 billion in the first quarter,helped by two new oilfields and a strong performance from itstrading division.
The British oil company - still fighting multi-billiondollar lawsuits over its Gulf of Mexico oil spill of three yearsago - turned in underlying replacement cost net profit of $4.22billion for the quarter.
That was down from $4.65 billion a year ago mainly due toasset sales, but it beat analysts' forecasts of around $3.27billion and the company's shares climbed 2.3 percent to 467.5pence in early Tuesday trade, their highest since late January.
"It's a very good number. They beat consensus materially.The way I look at it I strip out what I think are non-recurringthings like trading gains, positive consolidation," said SocieteGenerale analyst Irene Himona. "Even if you strip all that outyou find that the adjusted profit in Q1 was still about 7percent ahead of consensus, so clearly a strong operationalperformance that's very encouraging."
BP has been flagging for some time that its new productionmight deliver better profitability. The quarter included a fullthree months of production from its Skarv field in the North Seaand from its PSVM facility in Angola, which both startedproducing at the end of last year.
Lower unplanned downtime in the refining part of thebusiness and lower costs also contributed to the earningssurprise. Trading of oil and gas is not separated out in BP'sfigures, with oil trading buried in a refining and marketing result that was twice as strong as a year ago, and gas tradinghidden within the upstream oil and gas production section whichwas down slightly.
The lower overall profit versus a year ago tracks thegroup's shrinking earning power after the sale of its holding inRussian venture TNK-BP, and the disposal of other producingassets to pay its oil spill liabilities.
Ten days of earnings from its newly-acquired stake inRussia's top oil firm Rosneft and the profitable extraoutput failed to make up the difference.
BP's rivals Exxon Mobil and Chevron alsoreported better-than-expected first-quarter profits last week,although the scale of BP's earnings surprise is bigger.
BP's chief executive Bob Dudley, who has been under pressurefrom investors to deliver a turnaround for the company, said the completion of a $38 billion post-spill divestment programmealong with the revamp of its Russian activities which wascompleted ahead of deadline earlier this year and produced an $8billion share buyback, were steps in that direction.
"We have really simplified and focused down the portfolio,"he said in a company video. We've got a lot still to do thisyear but it's off to a good start."
BP (BP.)
