Profits at BP slumped in the third quarter, the British energy giant said today against a backdrop of sliding crude oil prices.
Net profit tumbled 63% to $1.29 billion (€1 billion) in the three months to the end of September, compared with the outcome for the equivalent period in 2013, BP said in an earnings statement.
But the oil giant said it would increase dividends in the third quarter as it saw a jump in operating cash flow.
This came despite those lower oil prices and a steep drop in contributions from Russia where a depreciating rouble hit its income.
BP said its dividends for the third quarter will rise by 5.3% year on year to 10 cents per ordinary share while organic capital expenditure for the full year will be trimmed to around $23 billion from previous guidance of $24-25 billion.
"Growing underlying production of oil and gas and a good downstream performance generated strong cash flow in the third quarter, despite lower oil prices. This keeps us well on track to hit our targets for 2014," BP's chief executive Bob Dudley said.
BP, a major investor in Russia through a stake in state oil major Rosneft, said the depreciation of the rouble against the dollar over the period had a significant impact on results.
It said its underlying net income from Rosneft for the quarter was $110m compared with $808m a year earlier.
However, BP's overall operating cash flow for the quarter was $9.4 billion compared with $6.3 billion a year earlier as the downstream segment saw underlying pretax replacement cost profit more than doubling year on year to $1.5 billion.
The upstream segment saw a fall in underlying pretax replacement cost profit to $3.9 billion from $4.4 billion on lower oil production volumes and prices.
