BP ( NYSE:BP ) reported on Tuesday a third-quarter profit that beat analyst estimates, but weaker oil prices and sharply lower refining margins dragged its earnings down by almost a half compared to the third quarter last year. Underlying replacement cost profit, BP’s definition of a net income, dropped to US$933 million for the third quarter from US$1.819 billion for the third quarter last year, “affected by a weaker price and margin environment”, BP said . In comparison, analysts polled by The Telegraph had expected BP’s third-quarter profit to come in at only US$780 million, while the average estimate of 14 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had anticipated the earnings to stand even lower at US$719.2 million. Although BP beat earnings estimates at a consolidated group level, its upstream business suffered heavily from the ‘lower-for-longer’ oil prices. BP’s upstream segment booked an underlying pre-tax replacement cost loss of […]