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BP's quarterly profit doubles to over $5 billion after Iran war oil surge BP reported second-quarter profit more than doubled to $5.73 billion, beating forecasts thanks to higher energy prices, trading and refining margins, as CEO Meg O'Neill outlined the group's priorities. Oil majors have benefited this year from market volatility caused by the U.S.-Iran conflict, which has disrupted energy flows and tightened global supplies. Last week, Shell reported a doubling of second-quarter profit to $9.8 billion. BP's second-quarter underlying replacement cost profit, its version of net income, beat expectations of $5.11 billion in a company-provided poll of analysts and rose from $2.35 billion a year earlier. The group said it would increase its dividend by 4% to 8.66 cents per ordinary share for the second quarter. BP also on Tuesday said it had launched processes to sell its U.S. biogas business Archaea as it continues to reduce its renewables investments to focus on oil and gas. It bought Archaea in 2022 for $4.1 billion as part of an aggressive expansion in renewables - a strategy it abandoned in 2025. BP has written down over $4 billion in recent months, mainly related to Archaea, its solar unit Lightsource BP and other low-carbon ventures. In recent weeks, BP has also completed the sale of its Gelsenkirchen refinery, agreed to sell its retail business in Austria and announced its intention to sell its UK North Sea business. By the end of the year, BP expects to have reached $15 billion to $16 billion of a $20 billion divestment programme it announced in 2025, for delivery by the end of 2027. Chief Financial Officer Kate Thomson said in an analysts' call the shape of the balance sheet was more important to her than the $20 billion programme tally. BP's shares, which have gained 25% so far this year, were down nearly 2% by 1304 GMT, reflecting a drop in oil prices on hopes of a U.S.-Iran deal.

'WE HAVE NOT DELIVERED CONSISTENTLY' O'Neill, who took over as CEO in April, outlined on Tuesday five priorities for BP: further strengthening the balance sheet, simplifying the portfolio, tightening investment discipline, improving operational performance, and creating structures that enable faster decision-making and greater accountability. "We are not making the most of our potential," O'Neill said. "Our performance over the past few years has not met our own expectations, let alone those of our shareholders. We have not delivered consistently; we have written off too much value; and our costs and liabilities are not resilient enough in a low price environment." BP's priorities ultimately will be judged on execution, RBC analysts said in a note. "Ownership of BP's historical failings is a good step forward for the investment case, and we look to the call for more clarity on the financial framework and tangible plans ahead," they said. While BP is expected to hit a net debt target of $14 billion to $18 billion earlier than initially planned at the end of this year, O'Neill said total liabilities expected at around $40 billion by then were still too high.

NET PROFIT AT HIGHEST SINCE 2022 BP expects capital expenditure in 2026 to be $13.5 billion to $14 billion, reflecting a decision to delay selling stakes in U.S. offshore assets in the Paleogene. Previous guidance was $13 billion to $13.5 billion. BP recorded its highest quarterly net profit since the third quarter of 2022, and second-quarter profits across all units beat expectations. Pre-tax profit at its customers and products unit, which includes BP's huge oil trading desk, was $4.95 billion, above the average estimate in a BP-provided analyst poll of $4.46 billion and $1.53 billion a year ago. The group said upstream plant reliability fell to 92.4% in the second quarter from 95.7% in the previous quarter, while production declined to 2.2 million barrels of oil equivalent per day and its refineries processed less crude, partly due to planned maintenance and disruption from the conflict in the Middle East. Brent crude prices averaged about $97 a barrel in the second quarter, up from $78…