BP Profits drop after wholesale energy prices fall back

Oil giant BP profits fell steeply between April and June 2023 after energy prices fell back from spikes caused by Russia’s war with Ukraine.

The firm confirmed that its underlying profits were $2.5bn dollars compared to an $8.4bn profit reported in the same three months of 2022, a period covering the early stages of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine when Russia cut the gas supply off to Europe which drove wholesale energy prices to an all-time record high.

Wholesale gas and oil prices have fallen back sharply since this period as the rest of the world has sourced alternative sources away from Russia.

A former BP exec, Nick Butler, said that the results are back to something like normality pre-Covid and pre-Ukraine.

Other energy giants Shell continue to make strong profits reporting $5.1bn in income for the same period between April and June 2023.

BP said that it paid $970 million on its North Sea businesses between January and June 2023 with nearly half of that due to the Energy Profits Levy, the windfall tax levied by the government for the excess profits generated during the period of high wholesale costs in 2022.