BP’s profits more than doubled in the first quarter of 2026 with the firm citing “exceptional oil trading conditions” and record refining volumes as contributing to a net income of $3.2bn (£2.366bn), more than twice the firm’s $1.38bn return in Q1 2025.
Citing “strong operational and financial results”, the oil major’s chief financial officer, Kate Thomson, said BP’s quarterly refining throughput of over 1.5m barrels a day was the highest figure in four years.
Thomson added that BP’s profits from “products” – which includes oil derivatives and gas – more than quadrupled from £500m in Q4 2025 to $2.2bn in Q1 2026, while noting that “oil trading contribution” to this rise ”was exceptional”.
The CFO added that the firm‘s ‘refining indicator margin’ – a measure of profits generated by turning crude oil into petrol, diesel and other fuels – “moved significantly higher towards the end of the quarter”, and observed that “events in the Middle East, and the ensuing impacts on key global supply routes, drove heightened volatility across crude oil, natural gas and refined products in the last part the quarter”. A barrel of Brent Crude was trading at an average of around $75 in Q1 2025, but regularly topped $100 in the quarter just gone and continues to do so.
The firm’s stellar performance has drawn criticism from some quarters, however, with activist group Greenpeace claiming that against the backdrop of conflict in the Middle East, “the oil industry’s capacity to profiteer from human misery is almost limitless”. The union Unite, meanwhile, said it considers that “oil giants laugh all the way to the bank.”
Unlike in previous quarters, EV charging was notably absent in the BP’s Q1 presentation. In 2025 the firm announced it would dramatically cut its annual investment in this area, reducing it from £5bn to £500m while sharpening its focus on traditional fuels.
