BP shows 2010 loss but restarts dividends
The fallout from the Deepwater Horizon disaster has hit BP's bottom line for 2010 but Q4 profits improve.
The company declared a $4.bn (£3.1bn) loss for the 2010 financial year, against a $13.bn (£8.6bn) profit in 2009. The loss was the first time BP has been in the red since 1992.
The loss, or replacement cost, reflected close to $41bn set aside for costs relating to the Gulf spill earlier this year. However, there was good news for shareholders as BP re-instated dividends, set at 7c per share to be paid in March this year, which had been suspended for the past nine months,
In Q4, profits showed significant recovery at $4.6bn up $2.8bn on the previous quarter and a $1.2bn improvement on the Q4 in 2009. This was helped by rising oil prices. BP is still expecting the two suppliers for the Macondo well site, Haliburton and Transocean, to pick up the majority of the disaster costs - both of which were heavily criticised alongside BP in the recent US Administration's enquiry report. Although BP has already written to the companies to that effect, they have not apparently received a response so far.
Other key milestones highlighted in the BP year-end report included the $10bn joint partnership with Russian oil producer, Rosneft, to explore in the Russian Arctic and the continued asset rationalisation programme which is now likely to extend to the sale of its Texas City and Carson refineries in the US.
