BP First-Quarter Profit Falls as Oilfield Sales Cut Output
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BP Plc, Europe’s second-biggest oil producer, said profit declined 4 percent in the first quarter as output dropped. The company booked an extra $400 million charge related to last year’s Gulf of Mexico spill.
Excluding one-time items and inventory changes, earnings fell to $5.37 billion from $5.6 billion a year earlier. BP was expected to earn $5.6 billion on this basis, according to the mean estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Production dropped 11 percent after the sale of more than $24 billion of assets to help pay for the disaster.