courtesy BP

Britain-based oil company BP has reported a near halving of second-quarter profit year-on-year, or down to $4.43 billion on the cutting in half of its exploration and production earnings, “primarily” due to TNK-BP, the company’s Russian venture.

Company second-quarter “replacement cost” profit for its E&P business was off 53 percent from the year-ago period to $5.05 billion, testament to the world demand slump and the fallen oil price since the middle of 2008. Otherwise, production was rising due to many new fields and was up over three percent to 4.01 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

The same 14-cent dividend was declared as seen last July.

But it was falling earnings that decided the result, and TNK-BP — the supermajor’s biggest oil producer — was chief among the “jointly controlled entities” and production-sharing contracts that showed a combined 80 percent earnings drop.

Now, after spending $4.8 billion on capital items in the quarter, the company extrapolates 2009 will see less than $20 billion in big-time spending.

Meanwhile, BP was still relying on Russia for oil production and dividing its gas production between “the world” and the North Sea.

Tags: BP PLC