British oil company BP has reportedfalling quarterly pre-tax profits and cut its 2002 production growthtarget for the third time in two months.
Pro-forma profits, adjusted to take account of exceptionalitems, fell by 13 per cent to $2.29 billion in the third quarter from the year-earlier period.
For the first nine months of 2002, pro-forma profits slumped by38 per cent to $6.06 billion from the same period the previousyear.
"Our trading environment has shown little improvement overalland, for the nine months, is well down on a year ago. Performanceimprovements have been impacted by weaker than expected production,"said chief executive Mr John Browne.
Hydrocarbon production, which groups oil and gas, increased byabout 4 per cent in the third quarter.
But BP shocked investors by cutting its forecast for hydrocarbonproduction growth for 2002 to about 3 per cent from a previousprojection of 4 per cent.