BP to purchase again extra shares after revenue doubles to $8bn

BP introduced additional share buybacks after underlying earnings greater than doubled to $8bn within the third quarter, leaving the power group on target for one of the crucial worthwhile years in its historical past.

Underlying earnings for the three-month interval had been $8.2bn, up from $3.3bn a yr earlier and much exceeding common analysts’ estimates of $6.1bn.

The group’s outcomes cap a historic collection of earnings for the world’s greatest oil and fuel firms, which have fuelled renewed calls in a number of nations, together with the US and UK, for extra aggressive taxation of power firm earnings.

Within the UK, BP mentioned it anticipated to pay round $2.5bn in taxes on its North Sea enterprise in 2022 together with round $800mn underneath the federal government’s power earnings levy, which has already elevated the taxes on oil and fuel manufacturing since Might.

BP’s earnings had been helped by “distinctive” earnings from its fuel buying and selling enterprise, it mentioned. Underlying earnings within the fuel and low carbon power division within the quarter rose to $6.2bn from $1.8bn a yr earlier.

BP dedicated itself to purchasing again an extra $2.5bn in shares within the fourth quarter, which might deliver whole share purchases for the yr to only underneath $10bn. It left its dividend unchanged after elevating it by 10 per cent in July.

Internet debt declined for the tenth quarter in a row to $22bn, down from $22.8bn on the finish of June, after falling from $38.9bn on the finish of 2020.

BP shares have risen greater than 45 per cent this yr.