The group had announced in mid-April that it expected to benefit from rising oil prices, noting that the price of Brent North Sea crude, the international benchmark, averaged US$81.13 a barrel in the first quarter, up from US$63.73 in the fourth quarter of last year.<\/p>\n
Oil prices have been volatile because of the war, coming close to US$120 a barrel in March, which BP traders were able to profit from.<\/p>\n
\u201cTraders do best in periods of volatility as sharp swings in the price create gaps between buyers and sellers … and greater hedging demand from industries like the airline sector,\u201d A.J. Bell head of markets, Dan Coatsworth said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe highest quarterly profit in the best part of three years is not a bad way for new BP CEO Meg O\u2019Neill to begin her tenure.\u201d<\/p>\n
BP shares were up 3% on Tuesday by midday (local time) on the London Stock Exchange.<\/p>\n
Meg O’Neill aims to reorganise BP, focusing on simplifying operations and improving returns. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
The company said in mid-April that each US$1 variation in the price of a barrel has a US$340 million impact on its annual operating profit before tax.<\/p>\n
BP \u201chas been working relentlessly to keep our assets producing safely, reliably and efficiently\u201d while working \u201cin an environment of conflict and complexity\u201d, O\u2019Neill said.<\/p>\n
The American CEO took up her post in early April, with a mission of implementing a recovery plan for the struggling group, whose profit after tax in 2025 plunged 86% year-on-year to US$55m.<\/p>\n
\u2018Simpler, stronger\u2019<\/p>\n
BP\u2019s performance has generally fallen behind that of its rivals in recent years, and last year the company mounted a boardroom shake-up after slashing clean energy investment and pivoting back to its more profitable oil and gas business.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neill plans to reorganise the company, clearly separating its upstream and downstream activities.<\/p>\n
Her aim is to make BP \u201ca simpler, stronger, more valuable company\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, we have to capitalise on the opportunity that exists across our portfolio, simplifying how we work, unlocking growth and driving improved returns.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new CEO faced a stinging rebuke from shareholders last week at the annual general meeting, as they largely rejected two board proposals as a step backwards on transparency, particularly concerning climate strategy.<\/p>\n
One proposal aimed to revoke two resolutions adopted at previous general meetings, which required BP to publish certain climate-related information.<\/p>\n
The other was intended to authorise holding shareholder meetings exclusively online.<\/p>\n
BP chairman Albert Manifold, who took office on October 1, faced a personal rebuke, with around 18% of shareholders voting against his election.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The group had announced in mid-April that it expected to benefit from rising oil prices, noting that the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[207468,534,54658,14801,138,28674,3806,1667,1888,13313,8482,78,5345,10110,111,139,69,12937,5340,9324,13420,15267,766,1436,203,171334,6149],"class_list":["post-402406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-64b","tag-amid","tag-bp","tag-british","tag-business","tag-crude","tag-east","tag-energy","tag-first","tag-giant","tag-huge","tag-in","tag-increase","tag-middle","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-prices","tag-profit","tag-profits","tag-quarter","tag-reported","tag-reports","tag-rise","tag-sharp","tag-soared","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}