BP profits double after ‘exceptional’ oil trading during Iran war – business live

Introduction: BP profits double as Iran war drives up energy prices

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.

The Iran war has helped BP to double its profits in the first quarter of this year, its latest financial results show.

The oil major has just reported that it made a profit of nearly $3.2bn in the first three months of 2026, on its favoured ‘underlying replacement cost’ earnings measure.

That’s higher than City analysts had predicted, with BP - which was hit by a shareholder rebellion last week – giving some of the credit to an “exceptional” contribution from its oil trading operations.

These quarterly profits are up from $1.54bn in the fourth quarter of 2025, and $1.38bn in the first quarter of last year.

Q1 2026 includes the surge in oil and gas prices in March, after the war began at the end of February, disrupting energy supplies from the region.

BP’s new CEO, Meg O’Neill, acknowledges the impact of the Middlle East conflict, saying the company is working in an “environment of conflict and complexity”.

O’Neill says BP is “working with customers and governments to get fuel where it’s needed” – at a time when fears of jet fuel shortages are growing.

She adds:

Overall, our business continues to run well. This was another quarter of strong operational and financial delivery, and we made further progress towards our 2027 targets. We had high plant reliability, high refining availability and increased production in the Gulf of America and at bpx Energy, our US onshore business - keeping production levels steady despite the ongoing disruption.

The surge in energy prices is worrying central banks, many of whom are setting interest rates this week.

Overnight, the Bank of Japan left borrowing costs unchanged, but three policymakers did break ranks and vote for a hike….

The agenda

10am BST: ECB survey of Consumer Inflation Expectations in the eurozone

2pm BST: US house price data: S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price MoM

On BP’s profit surge, Mike Childs, head of science, policy and research at Friends of the Earth, says:

“Just as we saw in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, fossil fuel giants are quid’s in when global instability drastically inflates fuel prices. But again, it’s ordinary people who pay the price when soaring energy prices threaten to plunge the UK into an even deeper cost of living crisis.

“If we’re to reduce our vulnerability to energy price shocks, the solution couldn’t be clearer. We must end our reliance on volatile, costly oil and gas by rapidly ramping up investment in cheap, clean, homegrown renewables alongside support for energy efficiency measures.

The deadlock in the Middle East confict has pushed the Brent crude oil price up to a three week high today.

Brent crude is up 1.75% at over $110 a barrel, for the first time since the US-Iran ceasefire was agreed on 7 April.

There are reports overnight that President Donald Trump is unhappy with an Iranian proposal to end the conflict, and reopen the strait of Hormuz, because it did not address Iran’s nuclear program.

MajaDarlington, climate campaigner for GreenpeaceUK, says:

“The oil industry’s capacity to profiteer from human misery is almost limitless. Seventy years after the US first achieved regime change in Iran as a favour to BP, here we are again, risking a global recession by trying to install the West’s man in a petrostate that will do anything to prevent it.

It’s been an entirely predictable disaster for everyone except the oil industry. BP’s profits are booming, with Trump’s bombs bringing billions for them and bigger bills for us. Britain subsidizes this industry to the tune of several billion a year, and yet they’ll still claim to be over taxed. Today’s numbers make a convincing case that the opposite is true.

Global Witness: 'horrifying to see BP’s profits grow' during Iran war

Campaign group Global Witness point out that the Middle East conflict is the second event to give BP ‘bumper profits’ in the last four years.

Patrick Galey, head of news investigations at GlobalWitness, said:

“It is horrifying to see BP’s profits grow as millions suffer the fallout from the US-Israel war on Iran. Unfortunately we’ve been here before – when Russia invaded Ukraine 4 years ago we saw big oil firms make bumper profits from spiralling fuel costs.

As oil prices drive up bills once again, it’s clear that fossil fuel companies don’t enhance affordability or energy security, they make life worse. They destroy the climate, push up the cost of living, and rake in billions in profit while innocent civilians die.

It’s well overdue that we make oil companies pay for the damage their doing. If they broke it, they need to fix it. It’s clear they can afford to.

BP: Middle East disruption will hit upstream production in Q2

Looking ahead, BP expects a drop in fossil fuel production in the current quarter, partly due to the Iran war.

It says:

Looking ahead, bp expects second quarter 2026 reported upstream production to be lower compared with the first quarter 2026, due to seasonal maintenance predominantly in the Gulf of America and the effects of disruption in the Middle East.

It also expect volumes and fuels margins to “remain sensitive to conditions and developments in the Middle East”.

Introduction: BP profits double as Iran war drives up energy prices

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.

The Iran war has helped BP to double its profits in the first quarter of this year, its latest financial results show.

The oil major has just reported that it made a profit of nearly $3.2bn in the first three months of 2026, on its favoured ‘underlying replacement cost’ earnings measure.

That’s higher than City analysts had predicted, with BP - which was hit by a shareholder rebellion last week – giving some of the credit to an “exceptional” contribution from its oil trading operations.

These quarterly profits are up from $1.54bn in the fourth quarter of 2025, and $1.38bn in the first quarter of last year.

Q1 2026 includes the surge in oil and gas prices in March, after the war began at the end of February, disrupting energy supplies from the region.

BP’s new CEO, Meg O’Neill, acknowledges the impact of the Middlle East conflict, saying the company is working in an “environment of conflict and complexity”.

O’Neill says BP is “working with customers and governments to get fuel where it’s needed” – at a time when fears of jet fuel shortages are growing.

She adds:

Overall, our business continues to run well. This was another quarter of strong operational and financial delivery, and we made further progress towards our 2027 targets. We had high plant reliability, high refining availability and increased production in the Gulf of America and at bpx Energy, our US onshore business - keeping production levels steady despite the ongoing disruption.

The surge in energy prices is worrying central banks, many of whom are setting interest rates this week.

Overnight, the Bank of Japan left borrowing costs unchanged, but three policymakers did break ranks and vote for a hike….

The agenda

10am BST: ECB survey of Consumer Inflation Expectations in the eurozone

2pm BST: US house price data: S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price MoM