BP’s profit beats expectations in Q3, but down on year

BP announced its financial results for the third quarter of this year in a press release on its official website. The company reported its net profit in the July-September period at $1.62 billion. BP’s Q3 profit beat analysts’ average expectations which called for $686 million.

BP reported that they cut their investment plans by $1 billion due to weaker oil prices. The weaker financial results for the quarter were driven by the company’s upstream operations, declining gas marketing and trading, weaker oil and non-U.S. gas prices.

The company’s production in Q3 was 2.11 million barrels of oil per day while petrochemical production in the three months ended in September was 3.449 million tons, down 10.6% from the same period of the previous year.

The contribution from Russia’s Rosneft, from which BP receives a 35 percent share of net income for its stake remained positive but came in less than a third of the third quarter 2015 figure.

BP reported that industry refining margins will be under pressure in Q4. However, the company estimates there will be a small improvement in Q4 of 2016.