BP net profit more than doubles

London - BP said on Tuesday that net profits more than doubled last year, compared with the outcome in 2012 when it faced huge fines from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster.

Earnings after taxation soared to $23.451bn (€17.332bn) last year, boosted partly by strong growth in oil and gas production, the British energy giant said in a results statement.

That compared with $11.017bn in 2012.

In the fourth quarter however, net profits sank by almost a third to $1.042bn, due to a vast write-off from a failed well in offshore Brazil.

BP added that adjusted net profit, stripping out fluctuations in the value of inventories and which is a better guide to underlying performance, plunged 21% to $13.428bn last year, hit by asset disposals, higher depreciation, weaker refining margins and exploration write-offs.

"The result benefited from higher underlying production and a one-off credit to production taxes but there were adverse impacts from divestment and higher depreciation and exploration write-offs," BP said in the earnings release.

The London-listed energy major added that the total cost of the devastating Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster in 2010 stood at $42.7bn.