Word: bp
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...security officer Aleksander Litvinenko. It would be premature, however, to judge the blanket visa approval as signaling a thaw in relations, rather than simply a necessary move to remain onside with European soccer authorities. This week, Russian security offficials again raided the Moscow headquarters of the British oil company BP, whose operation and holdings in Russia are coveted by Russia's hydrocarbon state...
...just can't keep Big Oil down. Trouncing analysts' expectations Tuesday, BP and Royal Dutch Shell, Europe's largest oil companies, delivered record profits for the first quarter of 2008. Anglo-Dutch firm Shell netted $7.78 billion in the first three months of this year, up 12% over the same period in 2007. Profits at rival BP, meanwhile, swelled by almost half to $6.59 billion. Shares in each firm climbed almost 5% on the news...
...heart of that growth for both companies were bumper profits from exploration and production units. Those at Shell's climbed 52% to more than $5 billion, and BP's did even better. But given the surging price of a barrel of oil, both businesses must share the plaudits with the markets. A spiraling dollar and jitters over supply have helped drive oil prices up almost a quarter this year, reaching a fresh record of almost $120 on Monday. An end Tuesday to the two-day strike over pensions by refinery workers in Scotland - which had earlier halted much...
...That's good news for shareholders in the likes of BP and Shell. But results like these can rankle consumers caught up in a cooling economy as gas prices at the pump steadily rise. Little wonder that results like these aren't trumpeted these days, but rather carefully explained. Record profit announcements from major energy firms are nothing new; those inflated oil prices have triggered a string of them in recent months. But the slowdown currently underway in the U.K., for instance, "puts a bigger onus on these companies to explain lucidly what exactly that means," says Simon Webley, research...
...play our part in ensuring that energy markets remain well supplied." That slight air of defensiveness is easy to understand. Where corporate profits are concerned, "everybody thinks it goes into the pockets of senior people," says Webley. "That is far from the case." The suggestion is that Shell and BP's profits will be plowed back into exploration rather than into, say, London's real estate market, which has been goosed up for years by bonuses from the now hurting financial sector. It's an important distinction, but it may not be enough to placate everyone...