BP CEO Discusses Q3 2010 Results – Earnings Call Transcript
BP Plc (
)
Q3 2010 Earnings Call Transcript
November 2, 2010 10:00 am ET
Executives
Byron Grote – CFO
Fergus MacLeod – Head of IR
Analysts
Jason Kenney – ING
Mark Gilman – The Benchmark Company
Theepan Jothilingam – Morgan Stanley
Kim Fustier – Credit Suisse
Jon Rigby – UBS
Lucy Haskins – Barclays
Oswald Clint – Bernstein
Michele Della Vigna – Goldman
Fred Lucas – JPMorgan Cazenove
Bertrand Hodee – Kepler
Sergio Molisani – UniCredit
Presentation
Fergus MacLeod
Compare to:
Previous Statements by BP
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BP p.l.c. Q2 2010 Earnings Call Transcript
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BP plc Q1 2010 Earnings Call Transcript
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BP plc Q4 2009 Earnings Call Transcript
Hello and welcome to BP’s third quarter 2010 results webcast and conference call. I’m Fergus MacLeod, BP’s Head of Investor Relations, and joining me today is Byron Grote, our Chief Financial Officer.
Before we start, I’d like you to take a moment to read this next cautionary slide. During today’s presentation, we will make forward-looking statements that refer to our estimates, plans and expectations. Actual results and outcomes could differ materially due to factors that we note on this slide and in our UK and SEC filings. Please refer to our Annual Report and Stock Exchange Announcement and SEC filings for more details. These documents are available on our website.
Thank you and now, over to Byron.
Byron Grote
Thank you, Fergus. Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon and welcome to BP’s third quarter results for 2010. This has been a quarter of significant change for BP and I am pleased to say, also one of great progress.
Bob Dudley took over as Group Chief Executive at the start of October. He has already announced significant leadership and organizational changes as we implement lessons learned from the Gulf of Mexico incident and pursue our efforts to rebuild trust in BP and value for our shareholders.
We’re confident of meeting the challenges ahead. As today’s results show, BP’s employees have remained focused on running the business during this period of change.
I will begin my review of the quarter with the trading environment. The table shows the year-on-year percentage changes in BP’s average upstream realizations and the refining indicator margin for the third quarter as well as year-to-date.
Compared with last quarter, our liquids realization reduced by 3% to $70 per barrel but was 12% higher than a year ago. Our gas realization increased to $3.92 per thousand cubic feet, up 4% on last quarter and 40% higher than a year ago.
Taking both oil and gas together, our third quarter average hydrocarbon realization was up 10% versus a year ago and 32% higher on a year-to-date basis. Relative to 2Q, the refining indicator margin fell by around $1 per barrel to $4.53 but remained over a $1 per barrel higher than in the third quarter of 2009. On a year-to-date basis, the refining indicator margin was slightly down on last year.
Turning to the financials; the Group continues to deliver strong underlying performance. Our third quarter headline replacement cost result was a profit of $1.8 billion. Adjusting for non-operating items, including disposal gains and an additional charge for the Gulf of Mexico spill, as well as fair value accounting effects, our third-quarter underlying replacement cost profit was $5.5 billion, an increase of 18% on the 3Q’09 result.
The underlying effective tax rate for the third quarter fell to 25% primarily due to the impact of recently announced disposals. As a result we have also reduced our current estimate of the full-year underlying effective tax rate to around 31%, although, as always, the fourth quarter rate can be particularly volatile.
Third quarter saw an operating cash outflow of $650 million. Excluding the impact of the Gulf of Mexico spill, underlying operating cash flow was $8.4 billion, up 4% compared with last year but down 5% on the previous quarter.
Now I would like to spend a few minutes providing an update on the operational response to the Gulf of Mexico spill, as well as the associated costs and provisions.
From an operational perspective, we have made good progress, although the relief well took longer than we expected at the time of the 2Q results. You will be aware that the Mississippi Canyon 252 well was killed and permanently sealed on the 19th September. This followed the successful shut-in of the well on the 15th July, after which no further hydrocarbons flowed into the Gulf of Mexico
No significant oily liquid has been recovered from the surface of the Gulf of Mexico since the 21st July, although small amounts continue to be collected from marshland remediation efforts. BP continues its efforts to repair the environmental damage and is ready to respond if any additional cleanup is required.
BP released the MC 252 well accident investigation report on the 8th of September. Based on the key findings of the report, the investigation team has made 26 recommendations designed to prevent a recurrence of such an accident in the future. We believe that many of the findings and recommendations of the investigation are relevant to the wider oil industry as well as to BP.
BP also announced its intent to join the Marine Well Containment Company (
) and make its underwater well containment equipment available to all oil and gas companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico.
And on the 1st October, we announced that we will pledge certain Gulf of Mexico assets as collateral to the $20 billion Deepwater Horizon Oil Trust. These consist of an overriding royalty interest in BP’s equity production from seven fields in the Gulf of Mexico.
Turning now to the provisions, you will recall we recorded a charge of $32.2 billion in the second quarter. We have now taken an additional pre-tax charge of $7.7 billion in 3Q. This is principally due to higher ongoing response costs due to the delay in the completion of the relief well, additional costs related to decontamination and demobilization of vessels involved in the response, claims center administration costs and additional legal costs.
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