BP Plc said profit surged to the highest in 18 years as soaring refining margins boosted earnings, giving Chief Executive Officer Meg O’Neill a powerful tailwind as she seeks to turn around the beleaguered British energy major.
Adjusted net income was $8.46 billion, compared with $2.21 billion a year earlier, the London-based giant said in a statement on Friday. More than half the profit came from the unit that includes oil refining and trading. The company’s net debt tumbled.
The results are O’Neill’s second full quarter at the helm and offer a fresh look at the operational performance that she’s identified as a priority. BP’s first outsider CEO is cutting costs, selling assets and paying down debt while preparing to lay out her longer-term strategy for the firm in December.
It comes amid a refining boom that’s showering Europe’s oil giants with cash, spurring BP’s rivals to announce jumbo payouts to investors - something the UK major is eschewing to focus on its balance sheet. Wars involving Iran and Russia have knocked out or disrupted oil refineries and trade routes, squeezing the world’s capacity to turn crude into diesel, gasoline and jet fuel and handing outsized profits to plants that remain operational.
"It really was a banner quarter for the refining business,” O’Neill said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. "We had very strong margins from the BP-operated refineries, we also had very strong underlying performance. We were able to capture the opportunity provided by the market.”
On Thursday, rival Shell Plc announced it was increasing its quarterly share buyback to $5 billion from $3 billion after its refining margins surged and earnings climbed to their highest since the aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. TotalEnergies SE has pledged as much as $2.5 billion of repurchases this quarter, while Repsol SA and Eni SpA have also boosted their buybacks.
By contrast, BP suspended share repurchases earlier this year to prioritize paying down debt and improving its balance sheet. BP made no new announcements about buybacks.
Net debt tumbled to $13.87 billion from $22.3 billion three months earlier, surpassing the company’s target a year ahead of schedule.
The company’s adjusted net income beat the $7.3 billion average analyst estimate compiled by Bloomberg. BP said oil and gas trading operations both performced strongly.
BP is benefitting from many of the same strong market conditions as its rivals. The major’s refining margin indicator surged to $46.70 a barrel during the quarter from $29.60 in the previous period.
The company’s Customer and Products unit, where oil trading and refining sit, made $4.8 billion in the quarter. It made $5.3 billion in all of 2025. - Bloomberg
