BP announced that it made just under $5bn ($4.96bn; £4bn) in underlying replacement cost profit between January and March of this year, citing a strong performance in its oil trading business.
The profit is actually a reduction from last year's gargantuan take, when BP's business benefitted from extremely high energy prices, but other than that exceptional period today's profit is the best result BP has reported in more than a decade.
Last year, BP made $6.2bn (£4.96bn) of profit in the same quarter. The drop this year is largely down to BP getting less money for the oil and gas it sold, although this was partly offset by an exceptional performance from its gas marketing division.
Today's figure is also around $700m (£560m) more than the $4.3bn (£3.44bn) which analysts who follow the oil giant thought it would make.
“These enormous profits are the unearned, unexpected windfalls of war,” said Labour shadow energy secretary Ed Miliband.
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