BP said that its refining and marketing division reported the strongest earnings for five years Julio Cortez/APBP is to resume a share buyback programme after the oil major significantly beat expectations with a doubling in underlying third-quarter profits. Increased oil and gas production, higher crude prices and the strongest earnings for five years in BP’s refining and marketing division helped deliver underlying profits of $1.87 billion, compared with $933 million in the same period last year and $1.58 billion forecast by analysts. Shares surged more than 3 per cent in early trading but as the day wore on the gains were pared and they closed 1.7 per cent higher at 510¼p. Headline profits including exceptional items slipped from $1.7 billion to $1.4 billion, however, as BP booked $486 million of one-off charges including a write-down of Gulf of Mexico assets, compared…

Source: The Times October 31, 2017 09:00 UTC