LONDON--BP PLC Tuesday posted a 34% fall in third-quarter net profit as lower average crude oil, natural gas and refined product prices once again offset higher production.
The U.K.-based energy giant said net profit or the three months ended Sept. 30 was $5.34 billion, down from $8.05 billion in the same period a year ago. Total revenue for the quarter was down 36% to $66.22 billion from $103.17 billion.
BP said the clean replacement cost of supplies, a keenly-watched figure that strips out gains or losses from inventories and other non-operating items, totaled $4.67 billion, compared with $8.89 billion for the third quarter of 2008. This was well above analysts' expectations of $3.21 billion in a Dow Jones Newswires poll of nine analysts.
Total oil and gas production was 3.92 million barrels of oil equivalent a day, a rise of 7% from a year earlier, due primarily to new output from the Thunder Horse field in the Gulf of Mexico. Analysts were expecting production of 3.87 million boe a day.
