By Jaime Llinares Taboada
BP PLC on Tuesday said it increased the dividend for the second quarter and launched a $1.4 billion share buyback.
The British oil-and-gas major declared a quarterly dividend of 5.46 cents a share, up from 5.25 cents in the first quarter. Increased distributions are based on the underlying performance of the business, an improving outlook for the environment and confidence in its balance sheet, it said.
In addition, BP reported a net profit of $3.12 billion for the three months to June, down from $4.67 million in the first quarter.
However, the underlying profit on a replacement cost basis increased to $2.80 billion from $2.63 billion in the first quarter, and was well above the market consensus of $2.15 billion that was compiled by the company and averaged from 24 brokers.
For the third quarter, the London-based energy company said it expects higher upstream production than in April-June, higher product demand across its customer business, and slightly improved refining margins.
Write to Jaime Llinares Taboada at jaime.llinares@wsj.com; @JaimeLlinaresT