"This is a good result in a difficult business environment, with all the three businesses continuing to reduce costs and grow volumes."The cost-cutting exercise, launched in March, delivered a $75m (346m) gain in the quarter as BP set stringent restrictions on managers' travel and on its $1bn-a-month procurement budget. First-half profits were down 26 per cent year-on-year to pounds 1.71bn. The interim dividend was up 9 per cent to 11.75p a share. The figures were at the top end of analysts' expectations for profits of between pounds 465m and pounds 552m. The City took the numbers in its stride, with shares in BP closing 2p higher at 812p.Sir John Browne, the chief executive, said that the price of benchmark Brent crude had fallen by almost a third in the past year, averaging $13.50.The plunging oil price had a negative effect on BP's core businesses - production, retailing and chemicals - and was only partially offset by a renewed drive to cut costs and increase efficiency, he said. BP YESTERDAY blamed the slump in oil prices to their lowest level in a decade for a sharp fall in second-quarter earnings The oil giant's profits fell 29 per cent to pounds 542m in the second three months of 1998 as the oil price collapsed on overproduction and slowing demand.

Sir Graham managed to raise eyebrows even in the cynical City in June, when he had to announce the first fall in profits at the group in 28 years.He blamed high interest rates, the hot weather in August last year, the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, the deadline for self-assessment tax forms on 31 January, and finally, Easter flooding.You might have thought the abstract world of derivatives would be immune from such considerations, but Liffe, the London futures market, still managed to get in on the act yesterday.John Foyle, Liffe's acting chief executive, warned that "July is traditionally a quiet month during the summer holiday period."Are Liffe's German rivals on the Deutsche Terminborse (now renamed Eurex) all sunning themselves on the beach? Or are the Teutonic hordes beavering away, extending their lead over London in the crucial Bund contract market?And, come to think of it, what is the German for "wrong kind of leaves"?. The peas have not been as prolific as we had hoped."Albert Fisher has been plagued by such misfortunes. A harsh winter destroyed Dutch cockle beds in the winter of 1996-7.The company's finances were further buffeted by a glut of lettuces in California.Coincidentally, one of the last serious bidders for the Albert Fisher business was Andrew Regan, just before he came a cropper last year trying to buy the Co-operative Wholesale Society.When it comes to excuses, though, it is hard to beat old pros like Sir Graham Kirkham, chief executive of DFS, the furniture chain. Everything else is exactly in line with expectations."Returning to this week, Roger Elmhirst, chairman of Zotefoams, blamed the strong pound for a slowdown in profits this year, as well as "a slowdown in supply to the three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle manufacturers".The Croydon-based plastics manufacturer supplies foam to big toy makers like Hasbro, which use it to make giant puzzles, including a four-foot high Big Ben and a giant plastic Notre Dame.Not to be outdone in the excuse stakes, Albert Fisher, the struggling fresh produce, food processing and seafood group, announced half year losses of pounds 23m in April due to the strong pound, a failed sale of its seafood operations - and El Nino, the global weather phenomenon.It went even better last month when it announced more woe and pinned part of the blame on a 25 per cent fall in the pea harvest.A spokesman for Albert Fisher said then: "We estimated a crop of around 32,000 tonnes but have seen that fall by a quarter."Most of Albert Fisher's peas are grown in Lincolnshire and East Anglia, he said "It's been wet, it's been damp and there has been no sun.

Sadly this proved a turnoff for punters during the tournament.To be fair, JD Wetherspoon has always been up-front in expecting poor sales during the World Cup, a four-week period every four years.Jim Clarke, finance director, said in June: "We knew things were going to be tough, and they've been as difficult as we expected."It's something we knew was coming and now it's finished. Provided he can re-educate customers to use these remote locations for their run-of-the-mill transactions he will have the best of both worlds: the the presence of a high street bank and the economies of a telephone bank.There may even be opportunities to leverage more business out of its business customer base for Greenwich NatWest, the renamed rump of its investment banking arm, and NatWest Wealth Management, perhaps better known as Coutts, and the fund management business Gartmore.It still looks a tall order to achieve a return on equity of 20 per cent from the Greenwich Natwest, given that it is only achieving 7 per cent now and will never have the fire-power of its bigger rivals.But size is not everything. IT SEEMS like an awfully long time since Derek Wanless was able to stand up and deliver a set of NatWest results without simultaneously having to dodge the brickbats. Yesterday, there was barely a projectile in sight for the chief executive to negotiate. First-half profits nudged past the pounds 1bn mark, the shares put on 10 per cent and, while NatWest's return on equity is still not in the Lloyds TSB class, nor does it any longer resemble a rude noise in polite company. It is still too early to declare NatWest back to full health after last year's annus horribilis, when the exit from investment banking left behind a pounds 700m hole in the profit and loss account. It has the biggest share of the small and medium- sized business market, 6.5 million personal account holders, a third of the credit card market and a mortgage book which grew faster in the first half than either Abbey National's or Halifax's.Once Mr Wanless has finished building his new retail bank, it will have 200 fewer branches, 10,000 less staff and 55 brand spanking new operating centres.