LONDON // British oil company BP has reported a halving of third quarter profits, due to lower oil and gas prices. Bigger than expected cost cuts meant the results beat forecasts by a big margin. BP said third quarter replacement cost net profit, which strips out unrealised gains or losses related to changes in the value of fuel inventories, was US$4.98 billion (Dh 18.29bn). Excluding one-offs the result was $4.67bn, compared to an average forecast of $3.16bn from a Reuters poll of 11 analysts.
BP said unit production costs in the quarter were 18 per cent lower than the third quarter of 2008. The London-based company said oil and gas production averaged 3.917 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, up 7 per cent compared to the same period in 2008. * Reuters
