BP Slips To RC Loss In Q3; Sees Sequentially Higher Production In Q4

(RTTNews) - British energy giant BP Plc. (BP.L, BP_UN.TO, BP) reported Tuesday that its third-quarter replacement cost or RC loss was $351 million, compared to last year's RC profit of $3.09 billion. RC loss per ADS was $0.10, compared to RC profit per ADS of $0.93 a year ago.

Loss for the period attributable to BP shareholders was $749 million, compared to profit of $3.35 billion a year ago.

The latest results were hurt by a divestment-related, non-cash, non-operating after-tax charge of $2.6 billion.

Underlying RC profit for the third quarter was $2.25 billion, compared to $3.84 billion a year earlier. Underlying RC profit per ADS fell to $0.66 from $1.15 in the prior year. The result was impacted by significantly lower Upstream earnings, resulting from lower prices, maintenance and weather impacts.

Total revenues and other income declined to $69.29 billion from last year's $80.80 billion. Oil and gas production for the quarter averaged 3.7 million barrels of oil equivalent a day, compared to 3.6 million barrels of oil equivalent a day a year earlier.

Underlying Upstream production, excluding Rosneft, was down 2.5 percent, reflecting maintenance across a number of regions and weather impacts in the US Gulf of Mexico.

Further, BP said it expects divestment transactions to reach around $10 billion by year end.

BP announced a quarterly dividend of 10.25 cents per ordinary share or $0.615 per ADS, which is expected to be paid on December 20.

Looking ahead, in the Upstream, the company expects fourth quarter 2019 reported production to be higher than third quarter due to completion of seasonal maintenance and turnaround activities.