Energy giant and LNG player BP reported a surge in its quarterly profit on the back of higher oil and gas prices.
BP said on Tuesday its underlying replacement cost profit reached $4.1 billion. This compares to $115 million in the fourth quarter of 2020 and $3.3 billion in the prior quarter.
Compared to the previous quarter, BP said profit rose due to higher oil and gas realizations, higher upstream production volumes and stronger refining commercial optimization.
BP said profit attributable to shareholders rose to $2.3 billion, compared with a loss of $2.5 billion in the prior quarter and a profit of $1.3 billion in 2020.
Also, BP has announced a dividend of 5.46 cents per ordinary share payable in March 2022.
“2021 shows BP doing what we said we would – performing while transforming,” chief executive Bernard Looney, said.
“We’ve strengthened the balance sheet and grown returns. We’re delivering distributions to shareholders with $4.15 billion of buybacks announced and the dividend increased,” he said.
In addition, Looney said that BP continues “investing for the future.”
“We’ve made strong progress in our transformation to an integrated energy company: focusing and high grading our hydrocarbons business, growing in convenience and mobility and building with discipline a low carbon energy business – now with over 5GW in offshore wind projects – and significant opportunities in hydrogen,” he said.