BP (BP.L) on Tuesday morning reported a sharp rise in first-half profit, buoyed by higher oil prices amid the Middle East conflict, and unveiled plans to sell its US biogas business Archaea Energy.
The London-listed oil major's attributable profit for the six months ended June 30 surged to $7.75 billion from $2.32 billion a year earlier, while revenue and other income climbed to $123.49 billion from $95.56 billion.
The company also launched a sale process for Archaea Energy, the US biogas producer it had acquired for $3.3 billion in late 2022. The move marks another step in new Chief Executive Meg O'Neill's strategy to simplify the portfolio and focus on assets that generate competitive returns and long-term value.
"We made good progress strengthening bp's balance sheet. We also took steps to simplify and strengthen [BP]," O'Neill said, while acknowledging that "there are areas where our performance fell short."
"We are not making the most of our potential. Our performance over the past few years has not met our own expectations, let alone those of our shareholders. We have not delivered consistently; we have written off too much value; and our costs and liabilities are not resilient enough in a low price environment," O'Neill added.
The company now expects 2026 reported upstream production to be in the range of 2,180 mboe/d to 2,270 mboe/d, compared with 2,312 mboe/d in 2025. Underlying upstream production is expected to be broadly flat compared with the previous year.
BP's shares were up more than 1% in London during early trading.
