Gulf between BP's profits and expectations

The once mighty BP, now in recovery mode following the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil spill, is beginning to feel the effects of its massive asset disposal programme.

The once mighty BP, now in recovery mode following the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil spill, is beginning to feel the effects of its massive asset disposal programme.

The company's key "underlying replacement cost profit" metric was down sharply in the first quarter. This figure strips out changes to the value of inventories and similar one off costs, so gives a good view of a firm's performance. After tax, it dropped to $4.8bn, down from $5.5bn in the first quarter of 2011. The market had been expecting a figure of $5bn, so this was a significant undershoot.

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