BP PLC (NYSE: BP) reported first-quarter 2015 results before markets opened Tuesday. The oil and gas supermajor posted adjusted diluted earnings per American depositary share (ADS) of $0.85 on revenues of $54.92 billion. In the same period a year ago, the company reported earnings per ADS of $1.14 on revenues of $92.99 billion. One ADS is equal to six ordinary shares.

BP’s profit in the first quarter totaled, $2.6 billion, compared with $3.53 billion in the year-ago quarter. The company’s replacement cost profit (comparable to adjusted net profit) was $2.1 billion.

Upstream profits totaled $372 million, compared with $4.66 billion in the first quarter of 2014. Production for the quarter was 2.31 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, 8.3% higher than the first quarter of 2014.

Downstream profits totaled $2.78 billion compared with $871 million in the year-ago quarter. The result reflects a stronger overall refining environment, despite weaker crude oil differentials in the United States, increased refining optimization, and production and improved marketing performance. Additionally, the first quarter saw a stronger contribution from oil supply and trading.

Profits from the company’s stake in Russia’s Rosneft slipped to $221 million from $529 million a year ago and replacement cost profit fell to $183 million from a total of $518 million a year ago.

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Bob Dudley, BP’s group CEO, said:

We are resetting and rebalancing BP to meet the challenges of a possible period of sustained lower prices. Our results today reflect both this weaker environment and the actions we are taking in response. … The dividend is the first priority within our financial framework and the board is committed to maintaining it, as we have today. We can sustain this by successfully resetting our capital and cost base and rebalancing our sources and uses of cash in the prevailing oil price environment. We will continue to review progress on this as we move through the year.

BP currently pays a quarterly dividend of $0.60 per ADS. The dividend yield is a lusty 5.9%.

Organic capital expenditure (capex) in the first quarter was $4.4 billion, and BP’s reset expectation of $20 billion total organic capital expenditure for 2015. BP spent $23 billion on capex in 2014 and had originally planned a budget of $24 billion for 2015.

BP’s average realized price per barrel of oil in the first quarter was $46.79, compared with $97.16 in the first quarter of last year. The U.S. price of $46.24 a barrel was about $6 a barrel below the European price

The company paid out $332 million in the first quarter related to charges for the Macondo well explosion in 2005 that killed eleven workers and dumped millions of barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The company has paid out $43.83 billion to date related to the disaster. It could pay out up to $13.7 billion in additional charges if the company is unsuccessful in its appeal and the explosion is ruled to be the result of gross negligence and willful misconduct.

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BP has sold about $7.1 billion of a planned $10 billion divestment of assets by the end of this year. The company sold about $1.7 billion of those assets in the first quarter. The company’s first divestment program resulted in the sale of $38 billion in assets.

BP easily beat analysts’ profit estimate for the quarter, and the company was saved by its trading operations. Ironically, the low crude oil prices allow the company to store today’s cheap oil and sell it forward for a higher price.

BP’s ADSs traded up about 2.7% in Tuesday’s premarket, at $44.40 in a 52-week range of $34.88 to $53.48. Thomson Reuters had a consensus analyst price target of $42.80 before the report.

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