BP warns of an impairment charge of up to £1.6 billion – London Business News | Londonlovesbusiness.com

BP has warned they are bracing for a hit of between £781 million to £1.6 billion amid a “post-tax assets impairments and associated onerous contract provisions” for the second quarter.

The oil giant’s shares have come under pressure as a result and this hit also includes the blow from their refining operations in Germany.

Lower refining margins have hit oil trading earnings of between £391 million to £547 million in the same quarter.

In early morning trading on Tuesday shares fell more than 3%.

Derren Nathan, head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown said, “BP’s focus has been a little scattergun of late, but it’s likely to remain an important part of the energy mix for some time to come.

“It still has one eye on the energy transition, and there appears to be little downward pressure on the oil price in the immediate future.

“This should keep both cash flow and generous distributions to investors flowing.”