BP p.l.c. (BP) Q1 2026 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Welcome, everyone, to BP's first quarter 2026 financial results call, which we're hosting today from our offices in Washington, D.C. I'm joined by Meg O'Neill, Chief Executive Officer, Harold Howell, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, and Kate Thompson, Chief Financial Officer. I hope many of you will have seen our 1Q video by now, and we look forward to taking questions shortly. Before that, though, let me hand over to Meg for a few brief opening remarks. Meg. Thanks Craig, and hello everyone. It's great to be here, and as I said in the video, it is a privilege to be here as BP CEO, and I'm really excited about the opportunity ahead of us. This has been another strong quarter for BP, despite a lot of external volatility, and importantly, our underlying operations continue to perform well. We produce 2.3 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, supported by continued high plant reliability, higher production in the Gulf of America and strong performance in BPX, offsetting disruptions in the Middle East and some divestment impacts. Refining availability was above our target of 96% and throughput was over 1.5 million barrels per day, our highest quarterly figure in four years. In trading, our focus remains on capturing value through the cycle while operating within a clearly defined risk framework. This all supported delivery of $3.2 billion of underlying net income, significantly higher than the fourth quarter, and $8.9 billion of operating cash flow before a working capital build of $6 billion. We also made progress in simplifying our portfolio with the agreed sale of the Gelson-Kirchen refinery announced in March, further increasing our structural cost reduction target by end 2027. And while net debt increased this quarter, this was largely due to a build in working ...