BP swings back to profit, epidemic uncertainty weighs

The London-based company said that while fuel demand in Asia, particularly in China, was recovering, global consumption remained weak so far in the fourth quarter.

BP’s shares are down more than 50% this year and remain near 25-year lows, battered by weak oil prices and investor concerns about BP’s ability to successfully shift to renewable energy from fossil fuels.

The coronavirus crisis will however not slow BP’s transition plans, Chief Financial Officer Murray Auchincloss told Reuters.

“It is hard to imagine the environment being much more brutal than it was in the third quarter,” Auchincloss said, even if the fourth quarter “is not materially different.”

BP reported a $86 million underlying replacement cost profit, the company’s definition of net income, for the three months to Sept. 30, beating analysts’ expectations of a loss of $120 million. It followed a record $6.7 billion loss in the previous quarter, when it also halved its dividend.

Weak fuel demand continued to weigh on refining profit margins, with BP refineries operating at 80% of capacity, Auchincloss added. Fuel demand remains around 15% below pre-crisis levels.

BP’s refining margin of $6.20 per barrel was up slightly from the previous quarter but less than half of what it was a year earlier.

The results were boosted by higher oil prices and stronger natural gas trading results, though oil trading was “significantly lower” than the previous quarter, BP said.

Refining and trading typically help offset weak oil and gas prices. But BP and its peers hit a perfect storm this year when the coronavirus epidemic led to both sharp drops in oil and gas prices and fuel demand.