Third quarter 2020 results
Performance improving despite difficult environment
Third quarter ($ billion)
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.
Cautionary statement
In order to utilize the ‘safe harbor’ provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the ‘PSLRA’) and the general doctrine of cautionary statements, BP is providing the following cautionary statement: The discussion in this results announcement contains certain forecasts, projections and forward-looking statements - that is, statements related to future, not past events and circumstances - with respect to the financial condition, results of operations and businesses of BP and certain of the plans and objectives of bp with respect to these items. These statements may generally, but not always, be identified by the use of words such as ‘will’, ‘expects’, ‘is expected to’, ‘aims’, ‘should’, ‘may’, ‘objective’, ‘is likely to’, ‘intends’, ‘believes’, ‘anticipates’, ‘plans’, ‘we see’ or similar expressions. In particular, the following, among other statements, are all forward looking in nature: the expectations regarding the COVID-19 pandemic including its risks, impacts, consequences and challenges and BP’s response, including the impact on financial performance (including cash flows, net debt and gearing), operations, credit losses, trading environment, oil and gas prices, global GDP, the shape of the COVID-19 recovery and the pace of transition to a lower-carbon economy and energy system; plans and expectations regarding the divestment programme, including reaching $25 billion of proceeds by 2025 and expectations with respect to completion of transactions and the timing and amount of proceeds of agreed disposals (including the expected completion of the sales of the midstream portion of BP’s Alaskan business (including TAPS) to Hilcorp and BP’s petrochemicals business to INEOS); plans and expectations with respect to the total amount of organic capital expenditure and the DD&A charge in 2020; plans and expectations with respect to the total capital expenditure for 2021; plans and expectations regarding net debt, including to deliver the target of $35 billion; plans and expectations regarding new joint ventures and other agreements, including partnerships with Equinor, Police Scotland, Microsoft, Aberdeen City and Aral in Germany; plans and expectations regarding BP’s priorities, including to focus on maintaining capital discipline, driving costs down, delivering divestments and reducing debt while bringing new major projects onstream; plans to expand the India retail business; expectations regarding quarterly dividends; expectations regarding demand for BP’s products in the Upstream and Downstream; expectations regarding the Downstream refining margins and marketing volumes; expectations regarding BP’s future financial performance and cash flows; plans and expectations with respect to the implementation and impact of BP’s strategic reinvention and redesign of its organization, including for the organization to be in place by the start of 2021, the announced reduction of up to 10,000 jobs, and plans for BP to deliver $2.5 billion in cash cost savings from 2019 to end-2021, and the amount and timing of associated people-related costs; expectations regarding the underlying effective tax rate in the fourth quarter of 2020; plans and expectations with respect the Lightsource BP Bighorn Solar project and BP’s ambition to reach 20GW of developed assets by the end of 2025; plans and expectations regarding Upstream projects, including for five Upstream major projects to begin production in 2020 and the timing of the Trans Adriatic Gas pipeline project; expectations regarding Upstream fourth-quarter 2020 reported and underlying production and maintenance activity; expectations regarding the timing of implementation of new accounting policies; expectations regarding price assumptions used in accounting estimates; expectations regarding the Other businesses and corporate average quarterly charges; and expectations with respect to the timing and amount of future payments relating to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will or may occur in the future and are outside the control of BP. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed in such statements, depending on a variety of factors, including: the extent and duration of the impact of current market conditions including the significant drop in the oil price, the impact of COVID-19, overall global economic and business conditions impacting our business and demand for our products as well as the specific factors identified in the discussions accompanying such forward-looking statements; the receipt of relevant third party and/or regulatory approvals; the timing and level of maintenance and/or turnaround activity; the timing and volume of refinery additions and outages; the timing of bringing new fields onstream; the timing, quantum and nature of certain acquisitions and divestments; future levels of industry product supply, demand and pricing, including supply growth in North America; OPEC quota restrictions; PSA and TSC effects; operational and safety problems; potential lapses in product quality; economic and financial market conditions generally or in various countries and regions; political stability and economic growth in relevant areas of the world; changes in laws and governmental regulations; regulatory or legal actions including the types of enforcement action pursued and the nature of remedies sought or imposed; the actions of prosecutors, regulatory authorities and courts; delays in the processes for resolving claims; amounts ultimately payable and timing of payments relating to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill; exchange rate fluctuations; development and use of new technology; recruitment and retention of a skilled workforce; the success or otherwise of partnering; the actions of competitors, trading partners, contractors, subcontractors, creditors, rating agencies and others; our access to future credit resources; business disruption and crisis management; the impact on our reputation of ethical misconduct and non-compliance with regulatory obligations; trading losses; major uninsured losses; decisions by Rosneft’s management and board of directors; the actions of contractors; natural disasters and adverse weather conditions; changes in public expectations and other changes to business conditions; wars and acts of terrorism; cyber-attacks or sabotage; and other factors discussed elsewhere in this report, under “Principal risks and uncertainties” in our results announcement for the period ended 30 June 2020 and under “Risk factors” in BP Annual Report and Form 20-F 2019 as filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will or may occur in the future and are outside the control of BP. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed in such statements, depending on a variety of factors, including: the extent and duration of the impact of current market conditions including the significant drop in the oil price, the impact of COVID-19, overall global economic and business conditions impacting our business and demand for our products as well as the specific factors identified in the discussions accompanying such forward-looking statements; the receipt of relevant third party and/or regulatory approvals; the timing and level of maintenance and/or turnaround activity; the timing and volume of refinery additions and outages; the timing of bringing new fields onstream; the timing, quantum and nature of certain acquisitions and divestments; future levels of industry product supply, demand and pricing, including supply growth in North America; OPEC quota restrictions; PSA and TSC effects; operational and safety problems; potential lapses in product quality; economic and financial market conditions generally or in various countries and regions; political stability and economic growth in relevant areas of the world; changes in laws and governmental regulations; regulatory or legal actions including the types of enforcement action pursued and the nature of remedies sought or imposed; the actions of prosecutors, regulatory authorities and courts; delays in the processes for resolving claims; amounts ultimately payable and timing of payments relating to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill; exchange rate fluctuations; development and use of new technology; recruitment and retention of a skilled workforce; the success or otherwise of partnering; the actions of competitors, trading partners, contractors, subcontractors, creditors, rating agencies and others; our access to future credit resources; business disruption and crisis management; the impact on our reputation of ethical misconduct and non-compliance with regulatory obligations; trading losses; major uninsured losses; decisions by Rosneft’s management and board of directors; the actions of contractors; natural disasters and adverse weather conditions; changes in public expectations and other changes to business conditions; wars and acts of terrorism; cyber-attacks or sabotage; and other factors discussed elsewhere in this report, under “Principal risks and uncertainties” in our results announcement for the period ended 30 June 2020 and under “Risk factors” in BP Annual Report and Form 20-F 2019 as filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.