BP reports record quarterly profit, dividend

A record profit of $28 billion was reported on Tuesday by BP in 2022, boosted by a surge in energy prices since Russia invaded Ukraine, and the company increased its dividend by 10% in a sign of confidence in the market's strength.

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

That is compared to $4 billion a year ago 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.

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

The dividend was boosted by 10% to 6.006 cents per share. In July 2020, it halved its dividend to 5.25 cents for the first time in a decade in the wake of the Pandemic.

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