BP plunges into losses but maintains fourth quarter dividend

BP held its quarterly dividend at 10 cents a share as $2.6bn of write-downs and restructuring charges sent it crashing into losses for the fourth quarter and full year.

A $3.31bn loss was reported for the fourth quarter, with underlying profits crashing 91% to $196m, well shy of forecasts, sending the oil major to a $6.48bn full year loss, with annual underlying profits plunging by just over half to $5.9bn.

Underlying operating cash flow for the fourth quarter of 2015 remained solid at $5.9bn, but while the total for the year stood at $20.3bn, this was down by more than a third on 2014.

Although the slump in the oil price sent the upstream business into a loss in the final quarter, the downstream arm partially offset this with a strong set of counter-cyclical results of flat profits compared to the prior year.

Cash costs were down by $3.4bn during the year, and are due to be $7m lower in 2017, with $3-5bn of divestments planned for 2016 taking further pressure off the balance sheet.

Organic capital expenditure for 2015 was $18.7bn and BP expects annual organic capital expenditure to remain between $17 and $19bn in 2016 and 2017 and to be at the lower end of that range in 2016.

"We are continuing to move rapidly to adapt and rebalance BP for the changing environment," said chief executive Bob Dudley.

"We're making good progress in managing and lowering our costs and capital spending, while maintaining safe and reliable operations and continuing disciplined investment into the future of our portfolio.

"Our plans set out a clear course for BP for the medium term and will allow us to deliver growth in the longer term. All of this underpins our commitment to sustaining our dividend and then growing free cash flow and shareholder distributions over the long term."

Analysts and investors were initially disappointed and remained concerned about the company's dividend.

Though there was "little for the bulls" to gore, Nomura said the update will be seen as disappointing given the shares' strong relative share price performance, though it did not see any structural new negatives and noted that guidance for 2016 was broadly in line with expectations.

Michael Hewson at CMC Markets said: "While the dividend has been maintained the question now is whether it will continue to be so given that energy prices still show no signs of finding a base."

"BP had already announced 4,000 job losses earlier this year, with 600 in the North Sea as well as further capital expenditure cuts in an attempt to ride out the storm, but there is a worry that with a dividend yield of 7.3% and a dividend cover of 0.5 it could be susceptible to a cut in the coming months, particularly given how bad this morning’s results are."

Hargreaves Lansdown's Steve Clayton added: “BP hasn’t blinked on its dividend, but it is playing chicken with the oil price. BP’s dividend is a mile away from being covered by earnings and the market is saying that this is unsustainable. They are a chasm away from their cash break-even oil price of around $60 dollars per barrel.”

Shares in BP continued to track lower over Tuesday morning and by noon were almost 9% lower at 334.85p.