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Texas blast eats into BP profits
 BP's earnings rose on higher oil prices. YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSLONDON, UK (Reuters) -- BP Plc, the world's second-largest oil company by market capitalization, reported surging second-quarter profits thanks to high oil prices, but a massive charge for injuries at its Texas City refinery blast dashed expectations of a record result. BP said on Tuesday that replacement cost net profit for the second quarter was $4.981 billion versus $3.873 billion in the same period last year. It would have been a record but for a non-operational charge of $826 million, which included $700 million in respect of fatality and personal injury compensation claims associated with the Texas City explosion, which killed 15 people. The "clean" result, which ignores one-off events and is the measure most watched by investors and analysts, was a record, at $5.807 billion, compared with a Reuters poll of 10 analysts which gave an average forecast of $5.656 billion. This was up from a "clean" $4.071 billion in the same period of last year. Analysts had initially expected Texas City to cost BP around $400 million, including loss of earnings and compensation claims. BP added that refinery utilization fell because of the blast. BP said its capital expenditure budget would be higher than expected in 2005, at $14.5 billion, compared to earlier indications of $14 billion, reflecting inflation in the oil services sector. 
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