BP PLC (BP) Tuesday reported a 33.6% decline in third-quarter net profit, largely on lower refining margins.

The British energy producer said net profit was $3.5 billion, or $1.01 per American depositary share, for the quarter ended Sept. 30. Discounting the value of inventories and one-off gains or losses, profit was $3.69 billion, or $1.17 per ADS, down 26.4% from a year earlier.

The company produced 2.207 million barrels of oil and oil equivalent per day in the last quarter, down 2.3% from a year earlier largely because of the sale of producing assets. But pretax production profits minus one-time items rose 1.3%, to $4.423 billion, as two higher-profit-margin projects came online in the past year.

BP's profit decline was partly the result of a 76% pretax drop in profit in its refining, trading and petroleum-products group after stripping out one-off gains and losses, as refining margins dropped from last year. The company's profit margin per refined barrel fell to $13.60 this year from $22.60 last year.

The company has been trying to pull itself out of a three-year retrenchment following the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and spill in the Gulf of Mexico . Since then, BP has sold close to $40 billion in assets and taken more than $42 billion in write-downs related to legal settlements and cleanup costs. It also pleaded guilty to 11 criminal counts in a U.S. court.

BP didn't say whether it anticipates higher or lower overall costs from Gulf legal costs, but it did say it may have to change cost provisions for certain claims, pending court rulings.

The company also raised its dividend to 9.5 cents a share, up from 9 cents.
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