BP will forge ahead with at least three more new projects this year, its CEO said, despite the British oil major reporting a 45 percent drop in second-quarter earnings that prompted a cut in its 2016 investment budget to below $17 billion. Recent results missed expectations, with analysts surprised by higher corporate charges, including administrative costs relating to Gulf of Mexico oil spill liabilities, and a lower contribution from BP’s stake in Russian oil producer Rosneft.
Though BP chief Bob Dudley acknowledged that the global oil glut’s impact on refining margins and revenue continues to make for a challenging environment, he said that capital expenditure plans have been helped by a drop in associated costs.
BP could make another three final investment decisions this year, having already signed off on the expansion of its Tangguh liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Indonesia and the Atoll offshore gas project in Egypt. A gas project in India, the second phase of the Mad Dog deepwater oil field in the Gulf of Mexico and a Trinidad project could all get the green light, he said. BP’s projects pipeline is expected to add 500,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day by the end of 2017, with a further 300,000 bpd by the end of the decade.