Oil giant BP said its first-quarter net profits fell 17 per cent compared with the same period in 2006 as oil prices and production fell.
BP said today its replacement cost profit, which strips out the impact of changes in the value of fuel inventories, was $4.36 billion in the first quarter.
Excluding one-off items, such as oil field sales that amounted to a net gain of $363 million, the result was $3.998 billion.
BP's shares traded down 0.17 per cent at 576 pence earlier, in line with a 0.13 per cent fall in the DJ Stoxx European oil and gas sector index.
The company said oil production fell 3 per cent, due to field sales and delays in bringing new fields on line, to 3.91 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in the quarter, slightly ahead of an average forecast of 3.89 million boepd.
BP is the first of the top tier of international oil companies to report its first quarter earnings, and analysts expect profits to be down across the sector, due to weaker oil prices and generally lower output..