By Ron Bousso and Shadia Nasralla
LONDON (Reuters) -BP made a $5 billion profit in the first quarter, rising from the previous three months on the back of strong oil and gas trading as the company pared back a share buyback programme.
BP said its first-quarter underlying replacement cost profit, the company’s definition of net income, reached $4.96 billion, up from $4.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022 and beating expectations of $4.3 billion in a company-provided survey of analysts.
However, it was a drop from the $6.25 billion recorded in the first quarter of 2022.
BP also said it will repurchase a further $1.75 billion of shares over the next three months after buying $2.75 billion in the previous three months.
BP’s dividend remained unchanged at 6.61 cents per share after a 10% increase in February.
(Reporting by Ron Bousso and Shadia NasrallaEditing by David Goodman, Kirsten Donovan)
