![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4f8e64546d388496c6abdd2dec3eb6bb.jpeg\")
BP\u2019s new chief executive said the group was ensuring fuel supplies are met across the UK (PA) \u00b7 Nick Ansell <\/p>\nBP has come under fire after revealing profits more than doubled in the first three months of the year thanks to the soaring cost of crude caused by the Iran war.<\/p>\n
The FTSE 100 firm revealed its preferred profit measure \u2013 underlying replacement cost profit \u2013 surged by over 130% to a better-than-expected 3.2 billion US dollars (\u00a32.4 billion) in the first quarter, up from 1.38 billion US dollars (\u00a31.02 billion) a year earlier and 1.54 billion US dollars (\u00a31.13 billion) in the previous three months.<\/p>\n
Most analysts had expected first quarter profits of 2.67 billion dollars (\u00a31.97 billion).<\/p>\n
Campaigners accused the group of profiting at the expense of households, who have seen fuel prices rocket at the pumps and are set to see energy bills jump higher when the price cap is next updated on July 1.<\/p>\n
Mike Childs \u2013 head of science, policy and research at Friends of the Earth \u2013 said: \u201cJust as we saw in 2022 following Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, fossil fuel giants are quids in when global instability drastically inflates fuel prices.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut again, it\u2019s ordinary people who pay the price when soaring energy prices threaten to plunge the UK into an even deeper cost of living crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n
The End Fuel Poverty Coalition called for a windfall tax on firms profiting from the Iran-related energy crisis.<\/p>\n
BP\u2019s new chief executive said the group was ensuring fuel supplies are met across the UK (PA) \u00b7 Nick Ansell <\/p>\n
The campaign group\u2019s co-ordinator Simon Francis said: \u201cThese astronomical profits are a startling reminder that when conflict drives up the price of oil and gas, energy companies profit and households pay.\u201d<\/p>\n
BP\u2019s new chief executive Meg O\u2019Neill, who took over at the helm on April 1, said the group was ensuring fuel supplies are met across the UK.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cThe teams across BP are playing their part to keep oil, gas and refined products flowing during an incredibly challenging time \u2013 focused on maintaining safe, reliable and cost-efficient operations.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cWe are working with customers and governments to get fuel where it\u2019s needed, helping minimise disruption and the impact it can have on people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oil prices have raced higher since the US-Israel war on Iran started on February 28 and are now more than 60% up so far this year.<\/p>\n
Brent crude reached close to 120 dollars a barrel at one stage and, despite falling back, is still above the 100 dollars level as peace talks falter and amid fears over a looming global energy supply crisis.<\/p>\n
BP\u2019s update showed its customers and products division \u2013 including its oil trading unit \u2013 reported profits of 2.5 billion (\u00a31.84 billion), compared with 1.4 billion dollars (\u00a31.03 billion) in the previous quarter and just 103 million dollars (\u00a376.2 million) a year ago as traders were able to capitalise on highly volatile oil prices.<\/p>\n
The group\u2019s shares rose another 3% in Tuesday morning trading, with the stock now having climbed more than a third higher in the past six months amid a boost from the crude rally.<\/p>\n
Maja Darlington, climate campaigner for Greenpeace UK, said: \u201cThe oil industry\u2019s capacity to profiteer from human misery is almost limitless.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cBritain subsidises this industry to the tune of several billion a year, and yet they\u2019ll still claim to be over-taxed.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s numbers make a convincing case that the opposite is true.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BP has come under fire after revealing profits more than doubled in the first three months of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[163808,42,87,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-414532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-fuel-supplies","tag-headlines","tag-iran","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}