Geoffrey Smith 

Investing.com — BP (NYSE) Russia exit was costly for the stock exchange in its first quarter. Rosneft’s writedown drove Rosneft to a loss of $20.38 million. 

This is the most significant individual writedown of any major western oil or gas company in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion. It has caused the sector to distance itself from Russian oil and gasoline. 

The company still made a profit of $6.25 Billion, more than half the amount expected. This is more than the quarter before and nearly twice the results for the same period last year.  Analysts were pleasantly surprised by the numbers.

This has resulted in optimal trading conditions at BP and oil prices. 

Net debt fell to $27.46 trillion, which was a concern since the outbreak. Due to the improvement in its balance sheet, the company was able to increase its buyback program by $2.5 Billion in the next quarter. This is now the eighth consecutive quarter.

According to the company, its trading unit had enjoyed its most successful quarter since its inception. CEO Bernard Looney called it “the most volatile quarter” ever in the oil market. The company anticipates volatility to continue, despite high levels of uncertainty regarding supply from Russia, OPEC and other countries. 

The company did however note downside risks in prices, such as Covid-19’s impact on Chinese demand. This has been around 1,000,000 barrels per day less than anticipated so far this year.

BP stock (LON:), rose 1.8% during the initial five minutes of trading in London.