BP’s quarterly profits have been labelled “obscene” after they hit an 18-year high of $8.46bn (£6.3bn), as the war in the Middle East drove up oil and gas prices.
The energy company hailed a “banner quarter” on Friday, with its underlying replacement cost profit – a key measure of its income – almost quadrupling in the three months to the end of September, from $2.2bn in the same period a year ago. The jump meant BP’s quarterly profits hit their highest level since the $8.9bn recorded in 2008.
BP’s chief executive, Meg O’Neill, told Bloomberg TV: “It really was a banner quarter for the refining business. 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.”
However, climate crisis campaigners said it was outrageous that BP was profiting so handsomely on commodities causing serious damage to the environment.
It is just over a week until diplomats will meet in Antalya, Turkey, for the Cop31 UN climate summit. Recent climate-linked disasters such as the devastating floods in Nepal will be at the forefront of many delegates’ minds. There are likely to be tensions with fossil fuel producing countries, which have sought to stymie calls for a transition to clean energy.
BP’s strong results also come as motorists in the UK face high fuel prices, with diesel now at 198.79p a litre, according to estimates from the RAC. The cost of petrol has also risen, with an average price of 172.92p a litre, compared with 132.83p in late February, before the latest conflict in the Middle East began.
Jonathan Noronha-Gant, of the campaign group Global Witness, said it was “obscene that polluters are continuing to cash in on the fallout of the war in Iran, making more bumper profits from spiralling oil prices while innocent civilians suffer.
“These massive profits come as ordinary people across Europe are struggling with the rising cost of living, with many struggling to afford to heat their homes as winter arrives,” he said.
Danny Gross, of Friends of the Earth, said: “As millions of households brace themselves for a cold winter, huddling under blankets and clutching hot-water bottles as they struggle to pay their bills, BP is raking in huge profits while doubling down on gas and oil production and slashing investment in renewables.”
Although the link between fossil fuels and climate breakdown has been known for decades, scientists directly linked carbon emissions from the world’s biggest fossil fuel companies to dozens of deadly heatwaves for the first time a year ago. Yet more heatwaves swept across Europe this summer, with separate research suggesting they led to a record 50,000 excess deaths.
As people in cities sweltered, infernos tore through forests and brush in parched rural areas. France experienced its largest area burned on record and fires blazed in usually cooler regions, such as the Cairngorms in Scotland.
In the Pacific, a supercharged El Niño is brewing, with water temperatures reaching more than 3C higher than usual. The weather phenomenon is likely to be the most extreme of its kind in at least 1,000 years, dumping vast amounts of extra heat into an atmosphere already warmed by climate breakdown.
“The climate crisis is not an abstract future threat,” said Clémence Dubois, head of global campaigns at 350.org. “People are facing deadly heat, destroyed livelihoods and growing insecurity now. Governments are being forced to find money to protect their populations, while fossil fuel companies are forecast to make extraordinary profits.”
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Record oil company profits come as the UK energy secretary, Miatta Fahnbulleh, is weighing up whether to allow drilling in the North Sea’s Rosebank oilfield, after approving a licence for the less controversial Jackdaw gasfield earlier in October.
BP’s quarterly earnings were bolstered by higher profits from the oil refining business as the difference between the cost of crude oil and the price of refined fuels such as diesel and gasoline soared, earning almost $47 for each barrel produced.
Although global oil prices have remained below the peaks recorded during the 2022 energy crisis, the pump prices for fuels, including diesel, have risen to all-time highs across the UK, Europe and the US in recent months because of severe disruptions to refineries in the Gulf region and across Russia.
BP’s earnings windfall announcement came after Shell and the French oil rival TotalEnergies reported their strongest profits since 2022, also thanks in large part to the profits made from refining crude into fuel products such as diesel.
BP earnings windfall announcement came after Shell and the French oil rival TotalEnergies reported their strongest profits since 2022, also thanks in large part to the profits made from refining crude into fuel products such as diesel.
