BP PLC reported a 135 percent jump in first-quarter net profits, compared with the same period last year, beating all forecasts thanks to higher crude and gas prices.
BP said replacement cost net profit, which strips out unrealized gains related to rises in the value of inventories, was US$5.65 billion in the quarter, after Brent crude rose 72 percent to an average of more than US$76 per barrel.
One dealer said the stock was likely to open up 2 to 3 percent on the results.
BP managed to outperform expectations partly because it also managed to achieve much higher prices for its gas, despite a drop in European benchmark gas prices compared with the first three months of last year.
Higher throughput at its refining unit also allowed the company to outperform expectations in this business, although a halving of margins compared with the first quarter of last year meant the overall result was sharply lower.
The world’s third-largest Western oil major by market value said oil and gas production was broadly flat compared with the same period last year, at 4.01 million barrels of oil equivalent per day — just ahead of forecasts.
BP said it had agreed to buy a 15.7 percent interest in Valhall and a 25 percent interest in Hod, both located in the southern part of the Norwegian continental shelf, from France’s Total for US$991 million in cash.
It was the latest in a string of acquisitions by the oil major in recent months, after it agreed to pay Devon Energy US$7 billion for assets in Brazil, Azerbaijan and the Gulf of Mexico.
The London-based company also said it would pay US$900 million for a 75 percent stake in the oil sands assets of unlisted Canadian company Value Creation.
The tie-up was announced last month, but no details on price or stake size were revealed then.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)