BP has announced a fresh cost-cutting review despite reporting better-than-expected quarterly profits, as the oil and gas giant seeks to boost shareholder returns and fend off activist investors. The company reported underlying profits of $2.35bn (£1.77bn) for the April-to-June period, beating analysts' estimates of $1.8bn, though down 15% from a year earlier.
Chief executive Murray Auchincloss said the FTSE 100 company 'can and will do better' for its investors, announcing a 4% increase in the shareholder dividend to 8.32 cents. The cost review will begin when new chair Albert Manifold joins the board in September, replacing Helge Lund, who oversaw a controversial shift towards green investments.
The review comes as BP faces pressure from activist investor Elliott Management, which has built a stake and is pushing for deeper cost cuts. BP has already announced plans to cut over $5bn from its green investment programme, refocusing on fossil fuels after a failed net-zero strategy under Lund and former CEO Bernard Looney.
BP also revealed its largest oil and gas discovery in 25 years off the coast of Brazil, at the Santos basin. The discovery, its tenth of the year, could be its biggest since the Shah Deniz gasfield in Azerbaijan in 1999.
