BP 2011 Annual Report Download - page 52

50 BP Annual Report and Form 20-F 2011
In the UK North Sea, we announced plans for investments totalling approximately
$14 billion – with our partners – in major new project developments.
In Iraq, working with our partners in the Rumaila Operating Organization,
we met a major milestone in reaching initial production targets agreed for the
Rumaila field.
Refining and Marketing
Replacement cost profit before interest and tax for 2011 was $5,474 million
compared with $5,555 million in 2010. Strong refinery operations enabled us to
capture the benefits of BP’s location advantage in accessing WTI-based crude
grades and, compared with 2010, the result also benefited from a higher refining
margin environment and a stronger supply and trading contribution. These
benefits were partly offset by a significantly higher level of turnarounds in 2011
than 2010 and negative impacts from the increased relative sweet crude prices in
Europe and Australia, primarily caused by the loss of Libyan production, and the
weather-related power outages in the second quarter. See Refining and Marketing
on page 94 for further information on the segment’s financial results.
Operating performance was strong, with Solomon refining availability of
94.8% and utilization rates above the industry average. We made significant
progress on the modernization of our Whiting refinery in the US, which is expected
to come onstream in the second half of 2013. This project will significantly increase
the capability of the refinery to process heavy crude and provide it with access to
crude from the Gulf of Mexico, the mid-continent US and Canada.
We achieved strong performance in our lubricants business, despite
a difficult marketing environment and increasing base oil prices. In our
petrochemicals business we received local government approval for our proposed
1.25 million tonnes per annum purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant in Zhuhai,
China, and are now seeking final central governmental approval.
Left Air BP is one of
the world’s largest and
best-known aviation
fuels suppliers.
Above The SECCO
facility is BP’s single
largest investment in
China and has a capacity
of 3.2 million tonnes
of petrochemicals
per year.
-2
2
4
0
6
$ billion $/bbl
10
8
0
4
16
12
8
20
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Refining and Marketing
Replacement cost profit
before interest & taxa
a See Financial statements – Note 6 on page 200.
See also Financial and operating performance on
page 94.
Fuels
Lubricants
Petrochemicals
BP average refining marker margin ($/bbl)
Our performance