Quarterly results

3Q in detail

Financial results and progress

• Underlying replacement cost profit for the quarter was $0.1 billion, compared with a loss of $6.7 billion for the second quarter of 2020 and $2.3 billion profit for the third quarter of 2019. Compared to the previous quarter, the result benefitted from the absence of significant exploration write-offs and recovering oil and gas prices and demand. This was partly offset by a significantly lower oil trading result.
• Reported loss for the quarter was $0.5 billion, compared with losses of $16.8 billion for the previous quarter of 2020, reflecting absence of significant exploration write-offs and impairment charges, and $0.7 billion for the third quarter of 2019.
• Operating cash flow for the quarter, excluding Gulf of Mexico oil spill payments, was resilient at $5.3 billion, including $0.9 billion working capital release (after adjusting for net inventory holding gains). Gulf of Mexico oil spill payments in the quarter were $0.1 billion post-tax.
• Organic capital expenditure in the first three quarters of 2020 was $9.1 billion, in line with the full-year target of around $12 billion.
• BP continues to make progress towards its target of $2.5 billion in annual cash cost savings by end-2021 compared with 2019, with its new organization on schedule to be in place by start of 2021.
• Proceeds from divestments and other disposals in the quarter were $0.6 billion. BP has already completed or agreed transactions for approaching half its target of $25 billion in proceeds by 2025, including the agreed $5 billion sale of BP’s petrochemicals business, expected to complete by year end.
• Net debt at quarter-end was $40.4 billion, down $0.5 billion. This includes the impact of the $1.1 billion payment for the completion of the joint venture with Reliance. Net debt is expected to fall in the fourth quarter as proceeds from divestments are received.
• A dividend of 5.25 cents per share was announced for the quarter.

Performing while transforming

• BP has brought two new Upstream major projects into production since mid-year: Atlantis Phase 3 in the US Gulf of Mexico and, ahead of schedule, Khazzan Phase 2 (Ghazeer) in Oman.
• Operations continued to be good with refining availability of 96.2% and Upstream plant reliability of 93.0%. Upstream unit production costs for the nine months of 2020 were 10% lower than 2019, reflecting progress on cost efficiency and strategic divestments.
• While refining margins remained at historical lows, driven by the extremely weak environment, BP‘s marketing businesses recovered strongly in the quarter, with fuels marketing earnings growing 3% year on year and lubricants result broadly in line with a year earlier.
• BP agreed to enter the offshore wind sector through a strategic partnership with Equinor to pursue offshore wind opportunities in the US, including taking a 50% stake in two leases off the US east coast.
• BP announced plans for a network of ultra-fast chargers in Germany and BP Chargemaster won a contract to deliver over 1,000 charging points for Police Scotland.
• BP also announced a partnership with Microsoft under which the two companies will co-operate to progress their sustainability aims. As part of this, BP has agreed to supply Microsoft with renewable energy and to extend its use of Microsoft’s cloud-based services.

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Useful links

Dates and details of dividend payments as well as our results archive and related press releases dating back to 2009