British oil producer BP raises quarterly profit by 32 percent, suspends share buybacks

British oil producer BP increased its underlying profit by 31.8 percent year on year to 1.54 billion USD (31.3 billion Kč) in the fourth quarter of last year. The company also announced it would suspend its share buyback programme so it could invest more in oil and gas projects and strengthen its finances as the impact of lower oil prices takes hold. This was stated in BP’s press release issued today.

The results were in line with analysts’ expectations. Underlying profit is operating profit after the cost of replacing production and excluding one-off items. It is often used as a key measure of profitability in the oil industry.

The company said its board had decided to suspend the company’s share buyback programme so it could use surplus cash to strengthen its balance sheet more quickly. Over the past three months, the company bought back its own shares for 750 million USD.

The company booked various impairments in the fourth quarter, which totalled 4.2 billion USD, according to Reuters. They were mainly related to its Lightsource BP solar division and its US biogas business Archaea. The company also sold a minority stake in its onshore oil fields in the US for 1.5 billion USD.

"2025 was a year of strong underlying financial results, strong operational performance and significant strategic progress," interim CEO Carol Howle said.

But she added that much more needed to be done. For the year as a whole, the company’s underlying profit fell to 7.5 billion USD, down from nearly 9 billion USD a year earlier.

Late last year, the company announced that Meg O’Neill, the current head of Australian company Woodside Energy, would become its CEO in April. She will replace Murray Auchincloss, who resigned unexpectedly. O’Neill will be the first woman to lead one of the world’s five largest oil companies and the first BP chief executive not to have come from within the company.

Early last year, BP announced it was abandoning its strategy of reducing hydrocarbon production for good and would focus less on renewables. Traditional oil and gas production will once again be its priority. The strategy envisages BP shedding 20 billion dollars’ worth of assets by 2027, reducing its debt and cutting costs.

Europe’s oil and gas sector is now going through a difficult period. Oil prices recorded their biggest annual drop last year since the Covid-19 pandemic, partly due to fears of oversupply in the market. Rival companies Equinor and Shell reported lower profits for the quarter, citing lower oil prices among other factors.