Lobbying

BP takes $25.5B hit from Russia pullout

by Brad Dress - 05/03/22 2:27 PM ET

FILE – A BP logo is seen at a petrol station in London, Tuesday, March 8, 2022. BP posted its highest quarterly profit in more than a decade thanks to surging oil and gas prices, in an earnings report that renewed calls for a U.K. government windfall tax to help households struggling with rising energy bills. The British energy giant said Tuesday, May 3, 2022, that underlying replacement cost profit — the industry standard measure — more than doubled in the first three months of the year to $6.2 billion, from $2.6 billion in the same period last year. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)

Energy giant BP lost more than $25 billion in earnings after it pulled business out of Russia in February, following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the company reported in its 2022 first quarter results on Tuesday.

The company reported a first quarter headline loss of $20.4 billion this year, compared to a $2.3 billion profit in the first quarter of 2021. BP estimated that its pre-tax loss totaled $25.5 billion in the first quarter of 2022.

Russia’s war on Ukraine prompted many multinationals to pull out of the country. BP announced in late February it was exiting a 19.75 percent shareholder interest with Rosneft, an oil and petroleum company headquartered in Moscow.

CEO Bernard Looney said the Rosneft exit “resulted in the material non-cash charges and headline loss” that BP had predicted.

“But it has not changed our strategy, our financial frame, or our expectations for shareholder distributions,” Looney said in a Tuesday statement.

After the corporate exodus from Russia, other international companies have also reported earnings losses as a result.

Rival gas giant Shell also reported about a $5 billion loss in its first quarter earnings, after announcing it would shut down all operations and services in Russia in March.

Looney told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that BP was still in good shape and was committed to severing ties with Russia.

“We have been very, very clear. We are announcing our intention to leave the country. We made that decision as I said very, very quickly,” Looney told CNBC.

Tags Bernard Looney BP Energy Gas Russia Russia-Ukraine war