BP scripts record $28 bn profit, increases dividend

BP reported on Tuesday a record profit of $28 billion in 2022, lifted by a surge in energy prices since Russia's invasion of Ukraine as the company increased its dividend by 10% in a sign of confidence in the market's continued strength.

BP's fourth-quarter underlying replacement cost profit, the company's definition of net income, reached $4.8 billion, compared with forecasts of a $5 billion profit in a company-provided survey of analysts.

That compared with $4 billion a year earlier and $8.2 billion in the third quarter of 2022.

The results were impacted by weaker gas trading activity after an "exceptional" third quarter, higher refinery maintenance and lower oil and gas prices.

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"We are strengthening BP, with our strongest upstream plant reliability on record and our lowest production costs in 16 years, helping to generate strong returns and reducing debt for the eleventh quarter in a row," Chief Executive Bernard Looney said in a statement.

BP boosted its dividend by 10% to 6.006 cents per share. It halved its dividend to 5.25 cents in July 2020 for the first time in a decade in the wake of the pandemic.

The company also announced plans to repurchase $2.75 billion of shares over the next three months after a $11.7 billion buyback in 2022.