The point to remember about BP chief executive Bernard Looney’s infamous comment about how the company is “a cash machine at these types of prices” was that it was made a year ago – so before the price of hydrocarbons surged a second time after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February. BP’s profits today, then, are exactly what you’d expect to see. The third quarter figure was $8.2bn (£7bn) – more than double the same period a year ago.
And the best guide to how far BP is beating its own definition of a par score is the pace of its share buybacks. At a steady $65-a-barrel oil price, the company reckons to spend $1bn a quarter, or $4bn a year, on buying in its own equity. At the nine-month stage of 2022, it has already earmarked $8.5bn for that purpose thanks to a Brent oil price that has been above (and sometimes well above) $85 for 11 of the past 12 months. BP isn’t just outstripping its base case assumptions – it is smashing them.
