BP profits double on high oil prices

British energy major BP announced Tuesday its third-quarter net profit doubled on sharply higher crude oil prices. Bottom-line profit after tax surged to $3.35 billion (2.9 billion euros) in the three months to September, compared with $1.77 billion a year earlier, BP said in an earnings statement.
Underlying replacement-cost profit, which excludes fluctuations in the value of crude oil inventories, also doubled to $3.8 billion. "We've captured the higher (oil) prices," said chief financial officer Brian Gilvary in a webcast released alongside the results.
Revenues jumped almost a third to $79.5 billion. Oil and gas production excluding Rosneft was flat at 2.46 million barrels of oil per day in the reporting period. BP will meanwhile fund the $10.5-billion purchase of mining giant BHP Billiton's US shale oil and gas operations entirely from cash, owing to the high oil prices.