BP Plc said its net profits excluding one-off items rose 7 percent - just beating forecasts - in the first quarter compared to last year, thanks to high oil prices and a better refining result than expected.
Excluding a non-operating charge of $17 million, BP's underlying or "clean" net replacement cost profit was $5.282 billion, ahead of an average forecast of $5.21 billion in a Reuters poll of eight analysts.
BP's profits would have been much higher were it not for lower oil and gas production and the closure of a key refinery, both related to the impact of hurricanes last year.
As usual, it was BP's upstream oil and gas production unit which powered the strong results, with higher oil prices more than compensating for a 1.6 percent drop in output to 4.035 million barrels equivalent of oil and gas.
The world's second-largest listed oil firm by market capitalisation said on Tuesday that, including one-offs, its first quarter replacement cost net profit, which excludes changes in inventory values, was $5.265 billion.
This was down 4 percent compared to the first quarter of 2005, when profits were buoyed by the sale of a gas field.
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