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BP PLC on Tuesday announced it plans to expand its share buybacks to around $4.0 billion per year, as it swung to a profit in the third quarter.
However, the profit was milder than in the second quarter.
BP continued "performing while transforming" in the third quarter of the year. It recorded $57.81 billion in revenue during the quarter, up 52% from $37.87 billion a year prior but 19% lower from $67.87 billion in the second quarter.
It swung to a pretax profit of $1.98 billion from a loss of $495 million a year before. Third quarter profit was however significantly lower than £14.06 billion in the second quarter to June 30.
Post-tax, it narrowed its loss to $1.98 billion from $2.35 billion a year ago. This compares to a profit of $9.54 billion in the second quarter.
BP also swung to a replacement cost profit of $23 million from a loss of $2.93 billion a year before. The profit is however dwarfed by a second quarter replacement cost profit of $7.65 billion.
By its preferred measure, the oil major's third quarter profit jumped year-on-year, to an underlying replacement cost profit of $8.15 billion from $3.32 billion. This was lower than the $8.45 billion profit in the second quarter.
BP announced a dividend of 6.006 US cents per share to be paid in December, up 10% from 5.46 US cents a year ago. It expects oil prices to remain elevated in the fourth quarter, due to OPEC+ cutting supply, however it expects global gas prices to be more volatile.
"BP expects industry refining margins to remain elevated in the fourth quarter due to sanctioning of Russian crude and product and energy prices are also expected to remain high," the company said.
BP increased its natural gas production to 5.0 million cubic feet of gas per day from 4.5 million a year ago and 4.7 million a quarter ago. Its average realised gas price rose to $9.85 per thousand cubic feet from $5.26 a year ago and $8.42 a quarter ago.
BP sold hydrocarbons for an average realised price of $60.80 per barrel in the third quarter, up 74% from $34.91 a year ago and 9.0% higher than $55.79 in the second quarter.
The firm sold liquids for an average realised price of $88.03 per barrel, up 33% from $66.39 but down 17% from $105.50 in the second quarter.
Upstream production in the fourth quarter is likely to be slightly lower than in the third quarter, BP guided.
The company said it plans to executive another $2.5 billion share buyback before the release of its fourth quarter results. It noted that it completed a $3.5 billion share buyback programme announced with second quarter results last week Thursday.
Further, BP said it expects to be able to deliver share buybacks of $4.0 billion every year and increase annual dividends per share of around 4% through 2025, based on its forecast with a price of around $60 per barrel Brent.
For its third quarter, BP said the average oil marker price for Brent was at $100.84 per barrel, up 37% from $73.51 a year prior but down 11% from $113.93 in the second quarter.
BP's cashflow rose to $3.53 billion from $933 million a year ago but was lower than $6.59 billion a quarter ago.
BP shares were 0.5% lower at 477.40 pence each in London on Tuesday morning.
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