BP on Feb. 3 reported a 24% slide in fourth-quarter net profit but a leap of 39% for the whole of 2008 as oil prices swung from record highs to multi-year lows.
BP, which axed 3,000 jobs in 2008 as part of a cost-cutting program, said it expected to exceed its original target of 5,000 reductions by the middle of 2009.
"We have made good progress in slimming and simplifying the organization while at the same time strengthening the front line, but we're not being complacent," chief executive Tony Hayward said. "In the current climate we especially need to maintain the momentum we have established in the drive to make BP more efficient. The mantra in BP today is: 'Every dollar counts, every seat counts.'"
Net profit for all of 2008 jumped to $25.59 billion, while earnings in the fourth quarter fell on a 12-month comparison to $2.59 billion . Hayward said the fourth quarter result "mainly reflected the recent dramatic fall in the world price of crude oil."
BP said its production increased by 1% in the fourth quarter from production in the same period of 2007 to 3.95 million barrels of oil equivalent.For the year, output was up slightly from 2007 at 3.84 million equivalent barrels of oil a day.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2009
