BP reported fourth-quarter earnings that missed analyst estimates after higher oil prices failed to fully compensate for lower income from refining.
Profit adjusted for one-time items and inventory changes totalled $400m, falling short of the $567.7m average estimate of analysts.
Unlike peers Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil, which said cash flow now covered spending and dividends at current oil prices, BP said it wouldn’t achieve that until the end of the year, and only if Brent crude rises to about $60 a barrel.
However it wasn't all doom and gloom as the oil giant saw profits double in the last three months of 2016, following a rise in oil prices and increased cost cutting.
BP Chief Executive Bob Dudley in a statement said that "2016 was the year we made significant strides for future growth." He added that the costs and liabilities associated with the Deepwater Horizon disaster were now fully behind them.
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