BP said its second-quarter production was up from the same period last year and added it is on track to meet its 2005 production goal of 4.1 million to 4.2 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd).
Overall production, which varies seasonally, was around 4.1 million boepd, compared to 3.97 million boepd in the second quarter of 2004, the oil giant said in a trading statement.
Much of BP's growth has recently been driven by its Russian production, but this is less profitable that output from non-Russian provinces, so investors will be heartened to see BP's non-Russian production come back into year-on-year growth.
BP added that oil and gas realisations, its actual receipts from fuel sales, rose in line with benchmarks. As crude prices have powered ahead to ever new highs in recent quarters, oil and gas firms have notched up record earnings.
BP's trading update, which follows upbeat operational comments from US rivals Unocal and ConocoPhillips last week, points to another quarter of bumper earnings for Europe's biggest company.
Oil companies had predicted new accounting rules that came into effect in January would add to earnings volatility and this was again shown as BP reported a €420.1 million charge related to embedded derivatives.
A spokesman said this was purely a technical accounting matter and did not reflect losses on speculative trading. All contracts, including hedges, must be valued at market prices under the new rules.