$5bn profit in 3 months, and still petrol prices are allowed to stay as high as they are. $55m profit per day. $2.3m PROFIT an hour.

If only the government / ofgem or whoever regulates them had a grip.

Thank God they've turned it around. I shudder to think how awful it must have been making only $1.8B a quarter.

The headline figure alone can be misleading.

How much of the price of a litre of petrol actually goes to BP?

How much does it cost to develop a new oilfield before it even gets into production?

How much is the profit asa %age of turnover?

How much is it per person employed?

What return on capital does that represent?

How much tax will they pay on that profit?

Do you drive a car, use plastics?

I think people have just reached my 'turning point' of patience with BP!!!

70% of the price of petrol and diesel in the UK is TAX. It would be better getting at this minority greed, majority austerity government about that rather than BP.

Having said that, the quicker we get away from non-secure, declining oil and gas the better.

They go on about a profit, but they have caused huge environmental damage in the gulf and continue in other parts of the world and the world is warming because we are burning both.

Give hydrocarbons up, full stop.

I wonder what percentage of that they will give the Tax man..

sorry, their point, obviously :)

There really is something fundamentally wrong with society and people isn't there.

They should have been broken up when they defiled the Gulf and the animals fish etc in the Gulf by spilling 4.9 million barrels. Disgraceful greedy company, makes me so ashamed to be British.

Back to multi-billion profits? Phew, that's a relief, I was beginning to worry.

@ CelestialR

I agree and i think it all boils down to the 1 very simple premise that The world is ran by the 1% for the 1% to benfit the 1%.

The way to reverse this will be to remove all lobbying and money from politics to compeltely remove corruption and facism, and to make sure the people get teh vote on all major topics.

1 pound, 1 person ,1 vote. make everything else illegal.

This way governments will only exist to serve the people, the way it should be.

The way the world works now is hopefully coming to a end.

Together we can make these companies spread the wealth and pay the taxes they should.

Occupy Wall Street needs an agenda. Pick 3 companies each month for everyone to avoid.

This month everyone stop using BP.

Throw in Barclays and Vodafone too.

@Scopey

You may have been to this site already but Max Keiser @ maxkeiser.com

Is trying to kick this off with boycotts of coca cola and the banks.

Would be interesting to know how much of the price of a litre of petrol is profit for BP?

Also it should be pointed out the Macondo well did not belong to BP, it wasn't run by BP staff, and didn't use BP systems.
But BP was the only one to fess up to its responsibility from the start. All the other parties had to be dragged through the courts before they would take any responsibility.
BP is the only one to have shown any integrity, but they are still being blamed because taking resppnsibility for it makes them the easiest target. No wonder so many people won't admit to their mistakes when they see what happens to those who do.

Happy pensions, happy people! I drive a car, I use plastics, I own shares, I have a pension...this is great news. I think they have turned a corner, and its a corner which takes them away from the fear of being bought by Exxon...so be thankful people, 'cos it would be a lot worse if that happened!

So you'll be dropping prices at the pumps then?

Thought not.

Happy pensions, happy people! I drive a car, I use plastics, I own shares, I have a pension...this is great news.

My generation cant afford pensions or shares or even housing.

The generation after me cant afford education and soon, wont be able to afford decent healthcare.

Still as long as the current crop of pensioners are happy who gives a fuck about anyone else eh?

scopey
25 October 2011 9:14AM
Together we can make these companies spread the wealth and pay the taxes they should.

Occupy Wall Street needs an agenda. Pick 3 companies each month for everyone to avoid.

This month everyone stop using BP.

Throw in Barclays and Vodafone too.

So what are those of us who have bank accounts and savings at Barclays supposed to do next month?

And if the answer comes back "move everything" (not always possible) what happens the next month when the bank to avoid is changed, can we move everything back? Are we supposed to keep changing things every month with the associated faff of telling HR departments to alter pay details, change direct debits, apply for new cards etc.?

A turning point away from catastrophic climate change would be something to boast about, but increasing profits from wiping out our future can only be considered a disaster.

@barebones

I wonder what percentage of that they will give the Tax man..

If you read the published numbers:

"The effective tax rate on replacement cost profit for the third quarter and nine months was 31% and 35% respectively"

Which is, of course, a bit above the uk rate of 26-27%. Add on the payroll taxes and other duties and it stacks up to a nice fat chunk for our government.

Seems like if you are one of these large companies, you can cause as monumental economic or environmental catastrophes as you like, and just carry on raking in billions as normal. Don't worry, everyone else will pick up the pieces.

When you buy petrol at the moment, you pay about 50p for the raw material, 60p in duty and another 20p in VAT. This leaves about 5p a litre for the retailer, from which you deduct the costs of running the business to derive about a penny per litre.

The forecourts are not what BP is about, it is all the things before this that make the profits, from exploration and discovery to refining. In time we'll probably see the oil companies sell off their network of petrol stations to supermarkets.

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Asset sales rise to $45bn

Thank god it was privatized!

Does all this good news for BP mean that fuel prices will drop?

@scopey

Together we can make these companies spread the wealth and pay the taxes they should.

What makes you think they don't?

My friends dad does something to do with oil. I've asked my friend what exactly he does but I don't think my friend actually knows. This friends dad works from home, low key family kinda guy. Paid £400,000 in income tax last year. He's a really straight down the line guy as well, I doubt he would have done what I and most people would have done and tried to avoid paying as much tax as possible.

Its just a shame that some of the most lucrative industries have potential cause (do) massive damage to the planet and its inhabitants. The world is crazy

"Third-quarter profits rise to $5.14bn, up from $1.8bn"

BP is a global oil and GAS company.

So there ya go......

Style of thing

Mr Ennui - My guess is that your friends dad has found a forumla for turning oil into gold.

and no doubt recent 'events' in Libya will have put a smile on the BP boards faces; cant have those pesky foreign 'dictators' interfering with our assets can we.......

Oooo all you people out there with pensions will be happy, the chances are your funds will be invested with BP, this is very good news for you.

This probably includes most of the posters appearing on this site, c'mon, how many of you have pensions ?

And for the numpties going on about the price of petrol, speak to the government as most of the cost of a gallon of petrol is paid to them in tax.
Jeeez, how many times does it have to be said...

Gelion asks us to give up using fossil hydrocarbons. Here's the situation;
Domestic heating and lighting; there are alternatives to choose.
Passenger transport on the ground, there are alternatives.
Flying: there's no (realistic) alternative to oil- powered vehicles.
Travel across the oceans; there's no (realistic) alternative.
Bulk freight transport; there's no alternative.

Hence; in using imported goods of any kind- including one's computer- there's no alternative but to use a supply chain completely reliant on oil. A country like ours, which couldn't last a week without imports, is completely at the mercy of companies like BP.
One can either ration a scarce resource directly; using Government force, or one can ration by price. Only during the miners' strike blackouts of the early Seventies has the former approach been used in the United Kingdom, (since WW2.)
Oil is scarce and getting more so. So without a change of political heart, ever higher petrol prices are inevitable. (And ever greater profits to oil companies!) Car drivers should reflect on the other options they have. Meanwhile, frivolous air journeys should, I think, be stopped altogether.

Must have sold a lot of sandwiches from those wee shops to make $5 billion in 13 weeks.

The oil companys spread their costs and revenues around high and low tax territories through wholely owned subsiduaries in order to avoid paying tax.

The oil companies are evil and a large measure of the problems there are in the world.

Our armed forces have been prostituted to them in places like Iraq and Lybia.

A different form of ownership is required for the oil industry, one that benefits as many people as possible, not just Fat Cat, rotten politicians and despots.

Gelion
25 October 2011 8:41AM
70% of the price of petrol and diesel in the UK is TAX. It would be better getting at this minority greed, majority austerity government about that rather than BP.

Why, didn;t the last government tax petrol?

So, when do profits become obscene exactly?

In this age of home-grown terrorism the greatest undercover police intrusions were instead being made infiltrating peaceful protest groups campaigning against oil companies like BP and our country's structural reliance on motor vehicles and oil consumption which ensures the mega-profits which energy companies like BP expect. We are all but pawns.

@CelestialR

There really is something fundamentally wrong with society and people isn't there.

They should have been broken up when they defiled the Gulf and the animals fish etc in the Gulf by spilling 4.9 million barrels. Disgraceful greedy company, makes me so ashamed to be British.

If you can tell me ONE thing that BP's greed made them do that casued the Macondo blowout (rather than in incompetent Transocean Driller not showing basic well control awareness) I'll eat my poo.

What about Pemex who did the same a few years ealier? Should they have been broken up? At least BP are paying, Pemex, as a national oil company claimed soveriegn immunity and told the US fishermen to fuck off- ain't public ownership grand?

good heavens there are some very stupid people here:

@keiserCelente;

I agree and i think it all boils down to the 1 very simple premise that The world is ran by the 1% for the 1% to benfit the 1%.

@Scopey

Together we can make these companies spread the wealth and pay the taxes they should.

AGreenup

A different form of ownership is required for the oil industry, one that benefits as many people as possible, not just Fat Cat, rotten politicians and despots

BP are PUBLICALLY OWNED!!! go and buy some shares in them (it's very easy to do.... you can even do it online!) and then you can get a share of the profits, ensure they pay whatever taxes you think is "right" and influence their policy. Go on, you and your friends, get some shares and you can control the company.

. Bp you are destroying the environment and dont even care. Fish and aquatic life were destroyed in gulf of mexico and you are only after profits.

@Sickswan
Still as long as the current crop of pensioners are happy who gives a fuck about anyone else eh?

The current crop of pensioners don't have shares in a pension pot - they have pensions. what the f**k are you talking about? oh right, you're just talking bo**ocks, as per

I hope the dividend will now be put back up

Ah, so that's where all the money is! And I thought the disabled grannies and inner city school children had it all....

If only BP was nationalized, that £5.14bn could pay for a lot of cuts :)

@ado1 So, when do profits become obscene exactly?

Well, I don't know what you think, but a common way is to look at the Return On Capital Employed, is the percentage profits. After all BP is a HUGE company, so it's not that much of a surprise that it makes HUGE profits is it?

And if you crunch the numbers (or google) you find that BP's ROCE is 12-16%. Which seems about fair.

For comparison, Apples ROCE is 40%.... THOSE are obscene profits!!!!!

Shall we all boycott Apple guys? ..... no , I thought not.... hyprocrites!

AlfieR

$5bn profit in 3 months, and still petrol prices are allowed to stay as high as they are. $55m profit per day. $2.3m PROFIT an hour.

If only the government / ofgem or whoever regulates them had a grip.

Apple made profits of $7.31 billion in the same 3 months. 50% more than BP on less than a third of the revenue. Or in your language $3.5m PROFIT an hour

Put another way, Apple's profit margin was 5x as high as BP's.

If only the government / ofgem or whoever regulates them had a grip, eh?

No? Funny there's never anyone decrying Apple's profits or margins, least of all in the Guardian, their corporate in house publication.

The only reason BP makes huge profits is that it is a huge company with huge revenues. Its profits are made on far leaner margins than Apple.

@foilist,

You beat me to it....

buy shares in them and stop whinging

DannyBrown:

@scopey

Together we can make these companies spread the wealth and pay the taxes they should.

What makes you think they don't?

How about this?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/8349627/BP-makes-300m-claim-for-tax-it-paid-by-mistake.html

or this?

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-1711339/Revealed-Tax-havens-of-the-top-20-UK-companies.html

@djamorpheus

If only BP was nationalized, that £5.14bn could pay for a lot of cuts

Ooh look!! Another financial ignoramus! (unless you're joking DJ, in which case apologies- it is hard to tell with the level of idiocy dispayed whenever an oil company's profit is announced in the Grauniad).

BP are about to spend £4billion on the Clair field, benfitting lots of UK suppliers, compaines and workers, so that's not quite all of these profits reinvested into the UK (and don't forget taxes are paid from profits, so actually the £4billion might be closer to 6 month's profit).

And you'd apprently prefer to use this money not making cuts rather than paying people to work, paying people to manufacture bits of kit and so on. genius!

Adding to my last post, BP has 85 subsidiaries in based in tax havens: 13 in the Cayman Islands, 5 in Jersey and Guernsey, 2 in Gibraltar, 15 in Bermuda, 22 in the British Virgin Islands, 21 in Luxembourg, 1 in Mauritius, 1 in Cyprus and 5 in Panama.

Those profits certainly aren't being shared about through taxes that they should be paying.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-1711361/Named-Top-20-UK-companies-tax-havens.html

Whoop!

Aren't BP one of the largest tax payers in the whole of the UK, if not the largest.

Go BP!