BP today said annual profits jumped by 39% to $25.6 billion (£18.1 billion sterling) as last year's soaring oil prices fuelled results.
The performance came despite a profits blow in the final three months of the year, as prices retreated sharply from the record of almost $150 a barrel reached in July.
But BP's profits - alongside rival Royal Dutch Shell's European record of £22 billion in profit last week - leaves the duo with a combined £40 billion haul from 2008.
BP said its fourth-quarter profits fell by 24% to $2.6 billion (£1.8 billion) - below most analysts' forecasts - caused by the fall in oil prices as well as one-off losses of $700m (£493m) from its Russian joint venture, TNK-BP.
But CEO Tony Hayward said the company was 'continuing to show powerful recovery' from the problems which beset the firm in 2007.
Excluding production-sharing agreements, BP pumped 3.84 million barrels of oil a day in 2008 - 5% ahead of the previous year - with start-ups from nine major new projects including its huge Thunder Horse platform in the Gulf of Mexico.
BP has been dogged by problems at its US refineries, but has rebuilt capacity at its Texas City and Whiting sites. The availability of its refineries rose to 91% in the last three months of 2008 - the highest level for three years.
Mr Hayward has led a drive to cut costs out of the business since taking over in 2007. BP shed 3,000 staff in 2008 and expects to axe more than the 5,000 posts originally planned by the middle of this year.
