BP third-quarter profits surge amid higher refining margins

(Sharecast News) - BP posted a surge in third-quarter profit and a reduction in net debt on Friday amid rising refining margins. Third-quarter underlying replacement cost profit - BP's core measure of income - rose to $8.46bn from $2.21bn in the same period a year earlier, beating expectations of $7.33bn. The oil giant said the jump is due mainly to significantly higher realised refining margins and a significantly higher gas and marketing trading result.

Operating cash flow rose to $14.8bn in Q3 from $7.8bn a year earlier, helping the company to cut net debt by $8.4bn to $13.9bn.

Chief executive Meg O'Neill said: "We maintained upstream production at around 2.2 million barrels per day, upstream plant reliability and refining availability both improved compared to the previous quarter, and our trading performance was also higher.

"This has generated a strong set of results, supported by the higher-price, higher-margin environment and some good progress on performance improvement across the business."

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