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High gas prices boost BP's outlook
LONDON, England -- UK energy giant BP said Wednesday it expected strong second-quarter earnings as oil and gas prices continued to strengthen during the three-month period. BP, the world's third-largest oil company, said in a trading statement that it expected sharply higher natural gas prices and slightly improved oil prices to lift its earnings for the April-to-June period. The group did not provide profit estimates in the statement. BP will post its full second-quarter results later this month. Shares in BP (BP) were up 0.3 percent to 412.75 pence in midday trading Wednesday in London. In April, the group posted a record quarter profit in the first three months of the year as the war in Iraq and strikes in Venezuela pushed oil prices to 12-year highs. It said first-quarter profits -- excluding exceptional items and reflecting supply costs -- rose to $3.73 billion from $1.58 billion in the same period a year earlier. Crude oil prices soared to almost $40 a barrel in New York in February as war in Iraq loomed. Crippling strikes in Venezuela, which shut down supplies to the United States in December and January, also helped price rises and boosted refining margins -- the difference between the cost of crude and the selling price of by-products. BP is looking to expand its international operations. In June, BP and Russia's TNK officially signed a multi-billion-dollar contract to create a joint energy venture, the biggest single foreign investment deal in post-Soviet Russian history. (Full Story) The agreement will see BP invest a total of $6.15 billion (5.3 billion euros) in TNK to create a new firm, TNK-BP, in which each side holds a 50 percent stake. The deal was signed at a London energy conference on the sidelines of a state visit to Britain by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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