WORLD PROPERTY CHANNEL ®

BP Plc (NYSE: BP) has opened its wallet again and given the state of Florida another $25 million check to spend on tourism advertising over the next two to three months.

Some financial industry analysts estimate the London-based oil company will wind up spending $1 billion to clean up the oil spill in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama and compensate residents in those states, according to various published reports.

The $25 million tourism grant is in addition to $25 million BP earlier in May gave Florida to help implement an area contingency plan, the Tampa Bay Business Journal reported.

Gov. Charlie Crist on May 12 requested $34.75 million from BP to allow Visit Florida, the state's official tourism marketing corporation, to create a marketing campaign to counter negative information about effects of the oil spill in Florida.

Gov. Charlie Crist

"As one of the world's favorite travel destinations, we will use every marketing resource available to spread the word that Florida's beaches are clean, our fish are biting, and the Sunshine State is open for business," Crist said in a prepared statement.

"The big focus now is how do we get the people of the Gulf Coast back to normal operations," Tony Hayward, chief executive officer of BP, said in a news conference.

On April 10 of this year, BP Plc reported its first-quarter 2010 profit from the refining and marketing business was $729 million.

The company said the $729 million was down 33% from the year-ago quarter due to poor refining margin which for the quarter was $3.08 per barrel compared with $6.20 per barrel in the first quarter of 2009.

Total refinery throughput increased more than 8% year over year, while refining availability increased to 95.3% versus 92.3% in the first quarter of 2009.

Net cash provided by operating activities for the quarter was $7.7 billion, compared with $5.6 billion a year ago.

Tony Hayward, CEO, BP Pls

Net debt at the end of the quarter was $25.2 billion, representing a net debt-to-capitalization ratio of 19%.

BP stated that despite a broadly flat production volume, this earnings upside was driven by lower production costs and higher selling prices.

The company sold oil for $71.86 per barrel (vs. $41.26 in the year-earlier quarter) and natural gas for $4.26 per thousand cubic feet (vs. $3.63).

Total production for the quarter was flat year over year at 4.01 MMboe/d (million barrels of oil equivalent per day, 63% liquids).

The company reported results of $1.94 per American Depositary Share (ADS), significantly above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.57 and year-earlier profit of 82 cents.

The replacement cost profit for the reported quarter rose 135% to $5.6 billion from $2.39 billion in the year-earlier period.

Revenue jumped 55% to $74.4 billion.

Please see related Real Estate Channel posting:

Gulf Oil Spill Threatens Alabama, Mississippi and Florida's $65 Billion Dollar Tourism Machine, May 3, 2010

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