Talk about taking a hit. How about the 45% drop in earnings in the second quarter for BP, the British energy company.
Profits fell to $720 million from $1.3 billion in the same quarter a year ago, according to a statement released by the company. BP’s net loss narrowed to $1.4 billion from $5.8 billion.
The company had taken a pre-tax charge of $5.2 billion in the quarter for costs connected to the Deepwater Horizon disaster of six years ago. BP had attempted to draw a line under the incident this month. It estimated the final pre-tax cost of the spill at nearly $62 billion including fines, litigation and environmental costs.
BP executives are attempting to attract investors by convincing them the company has turned things around even with oil prices several dollars below the $50 mark. Bernard Looney, BP’s new chief of exploration and production recently told investors the company has plans to deliver new production of 800,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day by 2020.