BP easily beat analyst expectations of third-quarter earnings, posting its highest quarterly profit, which nearly quadrupled from a year earlier amid strong refining margins and oil and gas trading.
BP’s underlying replacement cost profit, the metric is uses for net profit, soared to $8.6 billion for the third quarter, nearly quadrupling from the same period of 2025, the supermajor said on Friday. Earnings also rose by $2.7 billion compared to the second quarter, and smashed analyst estimates of $7.3 billion.
“Compared with the second quarter 2026, the underlying result mainly reflects significantly higher realized refining margins and significantly higher gas and marketing trading result,” BP said.
The BP average refining indicator margin soared to $46.7 per barrel in the third quarter from $29.6/b in the second quarter and $15.8/b in the third quarter of last year.
Year to date to end September, BP’s refining margin surged to $31.2 per barrel from $12.0 per barrel in the year-ago period, reflecting the record-high global refining margins amid disrupted crude and fuel supplies from the Middle East.
In the outlook for Q4, BP said that “Refining margins are expected to remain elevated and sensitive to the cost of supply and market conditions.”
Operating cash flow of $14.8 billion doubled in the third quarter from a year earlier, allowing BP to accelerate its balance sheet strengthening and pay down debt.
During the quarter, BP slashed its net debt by nearly $10 billion—to $13.9 billion at the end of the third quarter, from $22.2 billion just three months prior.
BP, unlike its peers, hasn’t raised payouts to shareholders with the bumper profits this year. It even suspended share buybacks early this year to focus on reducing debt.
“We have now delivered our net debt and structural cost reductions targets and have line of sight on the remaining two of the four primary financial targets we set ourselves for 2027,” CEO Meg O’Neill said.
Earlier this week, the other European supermajors, Shell and TotalEnergies, reported surging profits, also thanks to record-high refining margins.
TotalEnergies doubled earnings from a year earlier amid historically high refining margins, higher oil and gas prices, and strong oil and LNG trading.
Shell raised its buyback program to $5 billion, from $4.2 billion, as record refining margins and higher LNG and gas prices boosted its third-quarter earnings to over $10.8 billion, nearly double from a year earlier.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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