BP has reported weaker than expected profits of $3.3bn (£2.7bn) for the third quarter of this year amid lower global energy market prices and a slump in its gas trading business.
The company said its profits halved in the three months to September after it made bumper profits of $8.2bn in the same months last year when oil and gas prices soared after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The result was also well below analysts’ expectations of just over $4bn for the quarter.
The lower than expected profits mark BP’s first set of financial results since the shock exit of its chief executive last month.
Bernard Looney stepped down after three years at the helm after failing to disclose full details of relationships with colleagues. He was also under pressure from shareholders over his plan to cut oil production by the end of the decade.
The BP’s chair, Helge Lund, has started the hunt for a new boss, which could lead to the company’s first external chief executive hire for decades. The role is now being filled by the BP chief financial officer, Murray Auchincloss, on an interim basis.
Auchincloss said it had been a “solid quarter” for the company because of its “strong underlying operational performance”.
He added: “As we laid out at our investor update in Denver, we remain committed to executing our strategy, expect to grow earnings through this decade, and on track to deliver strong returns for our shareholders.”
BP has come under growing pressure from green groups since the company watered down its climate targets at the same time as announcing that annual profits more than doubled to $28bn for 2022.
Analysis by IPPR, a left-leaning thinktank, has found that BP invested nine times more into fossil fuels as renewables in the last two years.
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Joseph Evans, a researcher at IPPR, said: “BP is prioritising profit before people and the planet. At a time when energy companies should be urgently responding to climate change by moving their investments away from fossil fuels, BP has doubled down on its oil and gas business to reap enormous profits and enrich their shareholders with more than $1bn in buybacks.”
Charlie Kronick, the senior climate adviser at Greenpeace UK, said: “With massive storms pummelling both sides of the Atlantic, BP continues to post billions in profit while ordinary people pick up the tab for climate change.”
“Big Oil has played an outsized role in driving climate change. With the UK government missing in action, at the Cop talks next month world leaders must force BP and the rest of the industry to stop drilling and start paying for the damage they are causing to the planet,” he added.
BP shares declined by more than 5% on Tuesday morning after the results were published, making it the biggest faller on the FTSE 100.
