The company also pushed back its strategy update by about two weeks to Feb 26 to give CEO Murray Auchincloss more time to recuperate from planned medical treatment.

He is recovering well from the procedure and will return to the office next month, the company said on today, without giving more details.

BP’s update is another indication of a fourth-quarter fall in earnings for the world’s largest energy companies.

Last week, Shell Plc said its natural gas divisions saw lower sales volumes and trading earnings, while Exxon Mobil Corp said its profit took a US$700 million hit from lower crude prices and narrowing refining margins.

BP said upstream oil and gas production in the Q4 was lower than the prior period.

It saw seasonally lower sales volumes and profit margins in its road fuel business and “the oil trading result is expected to be weak”.

In the final months of 2024, unexpected weakness in what is typically one of the strongest seasons for oil consumption forced big players in the market to adjust, with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies delaying the planned restart of some idle production.

However, Brent crude futures have jumped so far this year, especially after the US imposed its most sweeping and aggressive sanctions yet on Russia’s oil industry on Friday.