BP Hikes Dividend for First Time Since 2014

BP announced on Tuesday the first dividend increase since the oil prices started crashing in 2014, as it quadrupled second-quarter earnings from a year ago. It reported that an underlying replacement cost profit—its proxy for net profit—of $2.8 billion for the second quarter of 2018, four times the profit reported for the same period in 2017, including significantly higher earnings from the upstream business and its 20% stake in Russian oil giant Rosneft, Oil Price reported.

BP’s second-quarter profit exceeded forecasts of $2.7 billion from a company-provided survey of analysts.

The UK oil supermajor also reported a strong upstream performance in Q2—the strongest quarter since the third quarter of 2014 on both a replacement cost and underlying basis. BP’s oil and gas production stood at 3.6 million barrels of oil equivalent a day in the second quarter, 1.4% higher than in Q2 2017, excluding Rosneft.

BP hiked its dividend by 2.5% to 10.25 cents a share, the first increase since the third quarter of 2014.

“Given this momentum and the strength of our financial frame, we are increasing our dividend for the first time in almost four years. This reflects not just our commitment to growing distributions to shareholders but our confidence in the future,” BP Group chief executive Bob Dudley said.