BP’s third-quarter profit nearly quadruples to $8.5 billion as refining margins surge

Oil major BP smashed third-quarter expectations on Friday, as volatile energy markets and high refining margins saw profits nearly quadruple year-on-year.

The company reported $8.5 billion in underlying replacement cost profit, used as a proxy for net profit. That was above the $6.191 billion forecast by analysts in an LSEG-compiled consensus and up from $2.2 billion a year ago .

The result primarily reflects better performance in gas and marketing trading, and "significantly higher" realized refining margins, BP said.

Operating cash flow hit $28.55 billion across the first nine months of the year, up from $16.89 billion in 2025, while net debt fell to $13.87 billion from $26.05 billion across the same period.

"These are dynamic times with volatility and disruption to trade flows continuing to define energy markets," BP CEO Meg O'Neill said in a statement.

"The industry as a whole has been showing remarkable adaptability. Refineries have been running close to capacity to make up for shortfalls, shipping has been taking different and longer routes, and releases from strategic and commercial reserves are helping to bridge supply gap."

Rivals Shell and TotalEnergies on Thursday said their refining margins — the amount earned from processing crude oil into products like diesel and gasoline — hit historically high levels .

Outages and damage to refineries from global conflicts, from Ukraine to the Middle East, have created tightness in global fuel markets this year, pushing product prices higher relative to crude .