BP will hand billions of pounds to shareholders after tripling its profit to nearly €7 billion in the second quarter of the year, in the middle of higher oil prices during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, even as citizens struggle with a severe financial crisis.
On Tuesday, the FTSE 100 oil company remarked its preferred measure of profit, which it sums up as its underlying replacement cost profit, rose to 8.85 Billion between April and June. That is up from 6.2 billion in the first three months of the year, and three times BP’s underlying profits of 2.8 billion in the second quarter of 2021.
It was the second highest quarterly profit in BP’s history, behind only its US$ 8.8 billion underlying profit in the summer of 2008.
BP also said it would hand investors US$3.5 billion through a share buyback program, while it surged its total dividend payout by 10% to about US$ 1.1 billion.
Oil organizations in the UK and beyond have enjoyed significant earnings in recent months on the back of rising energy prices as households around the globe have struggled with soaring bills.
A spokeswoman of BP said the organization expected to pay €1.9 billion in UK tax in 2022 after it added an $800 million charge on Tuesday to account for the energy profit levy. She said the company has invested twice to amount it has returned to shareholders, and that many of those investments in oil and renewable will build a more reliable energy system that will cut built on the line.
BP reports its own replacement cost profit measure to indicate its profitability before taking into account swings in the value of the oil it has in storage.
The UK government was approached for comment