BP Now Sees Q3 Upstream Production To Be Broadly Flat Sequentially

(RTTNews) - British energy major BP Plc (BP.L, BP_UN.TO, BP) Friday said it now expects Upstream production in the third quarter to be broadly flat compared to the prior second quarter.

Production would be broadly flat in oil production & operations and in gas & low carbon energy.

In the gas & low carbon energy segment, realizations would have a sequentially favourable impact of around $0.1 billion, including changes in non-Henry Hub natural gas marker prices. The gas marketing and trading result is expected to be average.

In the oil production & operations segment, realizations would have an unfavourable impact in the range of $0.1 billion to $0.3 billion on a sequential basis, including the impact of price lags on bp's production in the Gulf of Mexico and the UAE.

Bp further projects an unfavourable impact in the range of $0.2 billion to $0.3 billion, compared to the prior quarter, as a result of higher exploration write-offs.

In the customers and products segment, results are expected to be impacted in customers by broadly flat fuels margins, seasonally higher volumes partly offset by costs, and in products by weaker realized refining margins in the range of $0.4 billion to $0.6 billion and the oil trading result is expected to be weak.

The company now projects net debt at the end of the quarter to be higher, driven primarily by the impact of weaker realized refining margins and by the rephasing of around $1 billion of divestment proceeds into the fourth quarter.

bp's group results for the third quarter are expected to be published on October 29.