By Shadia Nasralla and Stephanie Kelly
LONDON (Reuters) -Oil major BP reported a smaller than expected fall in third-quarter underlying profit on Tuesday as higher refining margins partly offset the impact
of lower crude prices.
The company said it made an underlying replacement cost profit, or adjusted net income, of $2.21 billion, compared with the average estimate of $2.02 billion in a company-provided poll of analysts and $2.27 billion a year ago.
BP kept the pace of its quarterly share buyback programme at $750 million through the third quarter.
Chief Executive Murray Auchincloss said he expected completed or announced asset sale agreements would reach around $5 billion this year.
NO UPDATE ON CASTROL SALE
BP's European rivals Shell and TotalEnergies also posted third-quarter profit falls last month, dragged down by lower oil prices, though Shell beat expectations helped by better trading results in its huge gas division and Total benefited from higher refining margins.
Average Brent crude prices during the quarter declined 13% from the same period last year.
There was no update on the closely-watched sale process for BP's Castrol lubricants unit, which is the centre-piece of its $20 billion disposal programme.
BP's customers and products division, boosted by higher refining margins, reported profit before interest and tax of $1.61 billion, slightly above analysts' forecast of $1.59 billion and outperformed last year's $381 million.
BP's operating cash flow in the quarter was $7.8 billion, above last year's $6.8 billion. As previously guided, net debt was steady at around $26 billion compared with the previous quarter.
(Reporting by Shadia Nasralla and Stephanie Kelly. Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Mark Potter)
