Start Time: 09:00 January 1, 0000 10:09 AM ET

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP)
Q3 2024 Earnings Conference Call
October 29, 2024, 09:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Murray Auchincloss - CEO
Kate Thomson - CFO
Craig Marshall - SVP and Head, IR

Conference Call Participants

Josh Stone - UBS
Giacomo Romeo - Jefferies
Irene Himona - Bernstein
Biraj Borkhataria - RBC
Doug Leggate - Wolfe
Lydia Rainforth - Barclays
Peter Low - Redburn
Roger Read - Wells Fargo
Chris Kuplent - Bank of America
Ryan Todd - Piper
Alastair Syme - Citi
Kim Fustier - HSBC
Martijn Rats - Morgan Stanley
Matt Lofting - JPMorgan
Paul Cheng - Scotia
Bertrand Hodee - Kepler

Craig Marshall

Thank you everyone for joining BP's Third Quarter 2024 Results Call. As you'll be aware, we published the slides and script and video presentation alongside our stock exchange announcement earlier today.

So before we start with Q&A, let me hand over to Murray for a few opening remarks.

Murray Auchincloss

Thanks, Greg, and thanks everyone for joining Kate and I on the call today. To briefly recap today's results, operations ran well this quarter. Year-to-date, upstream production was around 3% up, including liquids production up 5%. Plant reliability in the upstream was more than 95% and refining availability was more than 96% for the quarter. A really cool statistic in our EV charging business, we've had 80% year-on-year growth and cumulatively this year we've now hit 1 terawatt hour of electrons sold to our customers around the globe. We now have 23 kbd of biogas supply online, with eight plants commissioning in 4Q.

Our performance has supported underlying profit of 2.3 billion in the quarter, and on distributions we announced another $1.75 billion share buyback and a dividend per ordinary share of $0.08. At the same time, we've made massive progress since we've laid out our six priorities at the start of the year. We've stopped or paused 24 projects as we high-grade our portfolio. We're divesting assets that won't compete for capital. We've made a lot of progress on Kaskida since FID in the summer, and I expect Tiber to follow next year. We're accessing new resource opportunities, including in Iraq, Azerbaijan, and Abu Dhabi.

We've completed the Bunge and Lightsource bp transactions, and we're in action to deliver over $0.5 billion of cost savings in 2025, on the way to our target of at least $2 billion by end 2026. And if you had the chance to watch the video, you'll note that Kate said we're working options that are nearly twice this target. We are firmly focused on growing cash flow through the decade, with significant optionality in our oil and gas resource base, and in transition, we're staying disciplined, focusing on ensuring we deliver returns and value for shareholders.