BP p.l.c. (BP) Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) Q3 2022 Earnings Conference Call November 1, 2022 5:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Craig Marshall - Head of Investor Relations

Murray Auchincloss - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Paul Cheng - Scotiabank

Oswald Clint - AB Bernstein

Biraj Borkhataria - RBC Capital Markets

Alastair Syme - Citi

Michele Della Vigna - Goldman Sachs

Lydia Rainforth - Barclays

Peter Low - Redburn

Irene Himona - Societe Generale

Lucas Herrmann - Exane BNP Paribas

Christyan Malek - JPMorgan

Giacomo Romeo - Jefferies

Martijn Rats - Morgan Stanley

Christopher Kuplent - Bank of America

Amy Wong - Credit Suisse

Jason Gabelman - Cowen

Jason Kenney - Santander

Craig Marshall

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to BP's Third Quarter 2022 Results Presentation. I'm Craig Marshall, BP's Head of Investor Relations. And I'm here today with Murray Auchincloss, our Chief Financial Officer.

Before we begin today, let me draw your attention to our cautionary statement. During today's presentation, we will make forward-looking statements, including those that refer to our estimates, plans and expectations. Actual results and outcomes could differ materially due to factors we note on this slide and in our U.K. and SEC filings. Please refer to our annual report, stock exchange announcement and SEC filings for more details. These documents are available on our website.

I will now hand over to Murray.

Murray Auchincloss

Thanks, Craig. Good morning, everyone. We are here today to report on another quarter of financial and strategic delivery. But first, I want to take a moment to acknowledge the tragic incident at the Toledo refinery, where two of our employees sadly lost their lives following a fire. Our thoughts go to their families, to the team at Toledo and to the local community. Safety remains our number one priority, and the refinery remains offline as we work to understand the root causes of this incident.

Turning to third quarter results. We remain focused on strengthening BP. During the third quarter, we delivered $8.2 billion of underlying earnings and operating cash flow of $8.3 billion, including a working capital build of $6.2 billion. We continue to execute against our disciplined financial frame, reducing net debt for the tenth consecutive quarter to reach $22 billion and announcing a further $2.5 billion share buyback. And we have momentum in our transformation to an integrated energy company.

Since reporting second quarter results, we have accelerated our bioenergy strategy, agreeing to acquire Archaea Energy, a leading U.S. biogas company; advanced our growth strategy in EV charging and convenience through our collaboration with Hertz; and continue to high-grade our hydrocarbons business. I will provide more detail on our results and strategic progress in a moment. But first, let me turn to the macro environment.