BP reports profit surge, battles oil spill

(UK:BP. 610.00, -16.80, -2.68%) said its profit rose to $6.08 billion from $2.56 billion during the same period of 2009. Excluding the impact of energy prices on unsold inventories as well as $49 million of one-time items, and BP would have earned $5.65 billion, topping consensus estimates by about $900 million.

Revenue rose to $74.42 billion from $48.09 billion.

The stock is up about 2% this year, lagging rival Royal Dutch Shell.

Meanwhile in the Gulf of Mexico an oil spill disaster at a BP well continues to spill 45,000 gallons of oil a day into the ocean. US law requires oil companies to pay for oil spill clean ups.

We're not financial wizards at this shark blog but shorting BP stock at this point might seem like a sound financial strategy: