Major oil companies’ first-quarter results have so far confounded expectations, but volatile trading operations and a likely fall in production mean the good times are unlikely to last. Europe’s big oil producers have been expected to report their worst quarterly earnings yet amid the market downturn but instead BP, Total and Statoil have delivered share-boosting first-quarter results. BP made a first-quarter profit of $532 million, against expectations of a $140 million loss, boosted, the company said, by refining and a strong performance by its trading unit. The same unit had a weak quarter at the end of 2015. The British oil major does not disclose figures for its energy trading divisions, or give details on its performance. “Given the lack of visibility on the repeatability of these profits, we […]