BP Bounces Back with Annual Net Profit of $23.9 Billion
BP said that net profits hit $23.9 billion in 2011 after a loss the previous year when the British energy giant was ravaged by U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster.
BP bounced back with adjusted profit after tax equivalent to 18.2 billion euros last year, helped by higher oil prices and divestments.
It suffered a loss of $4.9 billion in 2010 when an explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 workers, sent millions of barrels of oil into the sea and left the company with huge compensation costs.
Including changes in the value of BP's energy inventories, net profit hit $25.7 billion in 2011, the group added in a statement on Tuesday.
"BP is on the right path," the company's chief executive Bob Dudley said in the release.
"2012 will be a year of increasing investment and milestones as we build on the foundations laid last year."
BP said that it had committed $1.0 billion "for the early restoration of natural resources following the Deepwater Horizon accident in 2010."
It added that by the end of 2011 it had paid more than $7.8 billion to meet claims and government payments, while $15.1 billion had been paid into the trust fund used to compensate victims of the oil spill disaster.
In the fourth quarter, adjusted net profit rose 14 percent to $4.99 billion compared with the final three months of 2010. Analysts' consensus forecast had been for profit of $4.88 billion, according to Dow Jones Newswires.
Source: Agence France Presse
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