The second-biggest oil manufacturer in the U.K. – BP Plc made an official statement today, revealing a decreasing first-year profit, due to lower production and diminishing earnings at refineries. The announcement comes at a time when the company is still working to reorganize itself after the Deepwater Horizon explosion and the following oil spill in 2010.
Mr. Bob Dudley, the current Chief Executive Officer of BP Plc, said in the companys statement, which was cited by Bloomberg: “This is a very solid start to 2014. Operating cash flow was strong in the first quarter, we have seen further exploration success and upstream project start-ups.”
According to the companys statement, its first-quarter production decreased by 8.5% and reached 2.13 million barrels of oil on a daily basis. BP Plc also expressed its concern of the projections for the production in the second quarter of the financial year, which is expected to be lower than the one posted in the first quarter.
The companys output is considered to have been affected by the maintenance activities in Angola and the expiration of a concession in Abu Dhabi.
BP Plc announced that its revenue dropped from 94.11 billion dollars for the same period in 2013 to 91.71 billion dollars. The companys net profit sharply decreased to 3.53 billion dollars, from 16.86 billion dollars a year earlier, which however was boosted by a $12.5 billion gain from the sale of its stake in TNK-BP. The adjusted earnings for one-time items and inventory changes matched the average analysts estimates of 3.2 billion dollars and were reported to have declined from 4.2 billion dollars for the same period in 2013.
The companys statement for the first-quarter results comes at a time when it had just reached an agreement to sell stakes in four oil fields located in Alaska. BP Plc intends to stop its operations at its refinery based in Australia in 2015. The company is expected to reduce the number of employees there radically from 380 to 25. It also plans to create a separate unit for the onshore oil and gas business in the U.S.
BP Plc added 0.94% to trade at 492.95 pence per share by 8:13 GMT, marking a one-year change of +7.93%.
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