BP said it would cut $2bn (£1.6bn) in costs from its business by the end of 2026 after reporting worse than expected profits for the first quarter of the year. The oil company revealed that its underlying profits fell to $2.7bn for the first three months of 2024, down from $5bn in the first quarter of last year, in part due to falling gas prices and an unplanned outage at a large BP refinery in the US. The first quarter profits were below analyst predictions of almost $2.9bn. Related: UK housing market ‘finding its feet’ as prices inch higher; BP profits miss forecasts – business live BP told investors it would maintain the pace of its share buybacks despite the worse than expected start to the year by acquiring $3.5bn of shares in the first half of the year. The BP chief executive, Murray Auchincloss, told investors that the company would begin a programme to save $2bn in cash costs from the business by 2026 compared with 2023 levels. Auchincloss, who replaced Bernard Looney after the latter’s shock exit last September, said he planned to make the savings through “high grading” BP’s portfolio as well as “digital transformation, supply chain...