By Stephanie Kelly and Shadia Nasralla
LONDON, Oct 30 (Reuters) - BP posted its highest quarterly profit in at least five years on Friday, beating expectations as the Iran war boosted energy prices and refining margins, and said it would use the windfall to settle its remaining Deepwater Horizon liabilities.
The British oil major reported third-quarter underlying replacement cost profit, its version of net income, of $8.46 billion, compared with analysts' expectations of $7.33 billion in a company-provided
poll and $2.2 billion a year earlier.
BP data showed it was the company's highest quarterly profit since at least 2021.
Operating cash flow came in at $14.8 billion, while net debt fell to $13.9 billion, allowing BP to reach its net debt target a year ahead of schedule.
The milestone marks another step in BP's turnaround after the company reset its strategy in 2025 following an ill-fated push into renewables.
"This has generated a strong set of results, supported by the higher-price, higher-margin environment and some good progress on performance improvement across the business," CEO Meg O'Neill said in a statement.
BP shares were up 1.3% in early trade.
The US-Israeli war on Iran has driven up oil and fuel prices and boosted refining margins, prompting questions over how oil majors will deploy the additional cash generated by the sector.
BP said it would use part of the surplus cash to settle its remaining liabilities from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, one of the largest environmental catastrophes in US history, in which 11 rig workers were killed. Deepwater Horizon payables and provisions stood at $5.94 billion, according to BP data.
All three of BP's business units beat expectations. Its customer and products division delivered the strongest outperformance, reporting pretax profit of $6.95 billion, above analysts' average estimate of $6.3 billion and up from $1.72 billion a year earlier.
BP's refining indicator margin rose to $46.7 per barrel in the quarter from $29.6 per barrel in the second quarter and $15.8 per barrel a year earlier.
(Reporting by Stephanie Kelly and Shadia Nasralla. Editing by Joe Bavier and Mark Potter)
