BP Soar on High Oil Prices



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LONDON-

            BP PLC


BP -0.17%

said Tuesday, on the third quarter of the year, he said, "Big Oil on track to deliver record levels of cash this year.

London-based BP said its replacement cost was $ 1.3 billion in the third quarter, compared with $ 1.4 billion in the same period a year earlier. Its underlying profits rose to $ 3.8 billion, a five-year high and slightly higher than expected.

BP shares opened 3% higher in early London trading.

Exxon Mobil
Corp.

,

            Chevron
Corp.

and

            Royal Dutch Shell
            

      PLC are all due to report their results later this week.

Years of cost-cutting caused by the market's dividends for the industry's giants as the market rebounds. But investors remain skeptical, making solid delivery on results.

Last week, French oil giant

            Total
HER

and Norway's

            Equinor
AS

Statoil-both announced a sharp increase in earnings for the third quarter, while continuing to emphasize their commitment to control spending and grow production.

BP echoed that feeling. The company says it remains committed to capital discipline and growing distributions to shareholders. The British oil giant has already delivered on popular shareholder programs, increasing its dividend in July.

BP said it was generating much more money, which is expected to flow to the US $ 11 billion acquisition of BHP Biliton Ltd.'s onshore U.S. oil and gas assets entirely in cash. When the deal was announced in July, BP had planned to fund 50% of the purchase through equity.

The company says it expects to complete the transaction on Wednesday. Linked to the deal, BP is planning $ 5 billion- $ 6 billion-worth of divestments, with the proceeds going to pay the company's debt.

It's also closing in on its ambition to return to production levels last seen before the company's fatal blowout in the Gulf of Mexico eight years ago. To pay for the disaster, which killed 11 people and caused the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history, BP sold off trillions of dollars of assets, shrinking its production. In addition to its acquisition of BHP 's assets, BP started production of two new major projects this month.

The company said $ 20 million in the third quarter, and is expected to total just over $ 3 billion this year. BP's landmark $ 20 billion settlement with the U.S. government in 2015 requires the company to make $ 1 billion in annual payments through the end of the next decade.

Write to Sarah Kent at [email protected]

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