BP reported third-quarter profits up 148 per cent to $10 billion (£6.4 billion) amid growing concern that oil companies are not passing on the benefits of lower oil prices to consumers.

The oil giant said this morning that it had benefited from crude prices hitting a record of $147 a barrel in mid-July, although the company had lost some production due to hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico and Russia's invasion of Georgia.

BP's better-than-expected figures are likely to prompt controversy over whether the world's major oil companies are passing on lower costs to consumers quickly enough.

The price of oil has fallen rapidly from its peak in July to $63.41 today and Prime Minister Gordon Brown gave warning last week that he would call in the Office of Fair Trading if producers did not pass the benefits of lower prices on to consumers.

Opec, the cartel that produces 40 per cent of the world's oil, said yesterday that it stood ready to cut supplies again after last week voting to reduce daily output by 1.5 million barrels in a bid to stop the price of crude from falling further.

The price has been falling because of fears that a global recession will cut demand for oil, which has dragged BP's shares lower in the last month. However, today's strong results pushed the company's share price up 26p to 464p in early trading.

Between July and September, BP said its replacement cost profit, the standard industry measure, was $10 billion compared with $4 billion in the same quarter last year and $6.7 billion in the previous quarter this year.

In the first nine months of this year, BP's profits are up 54 per cent at $23 billion. Output was slightly higher at 3.664 million barrels of oil equivalent a day despite the disruptions in the Gulf of Mexico and Caspian drilling areas.

In September, BP shut down its 475,000 barrel-a-day Texas City refinery because of hurricane activity and shipments through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which crosses Georgia, were stopped after a fire in August.

The Baku-to-Supsa pipeline and the South Caucus gas pipeline were also shut down following Russia's invasion of Georgia. The closure of these pipelines forced Caspian Sea oil producers, including BP, to cut output from 800,000 barrels per day to an estimated 250,000 barrels.

Tony Hayward, chief executive of BP, said: "Although it has since fallen away sharply, the high oil price of the third quarter obviously helped our absolute result. But this should not obscure very real operational improvements in refining and rigorous cost control across the company that kept our cash costs essentially flat compared with last year - despite immense inflationary pressures in the sector."

Mr Hayward added that BP was continuing with its restructuring programme, which aims to cut costs and eliminate positions in middle management.

BP, which pays nearly 10 per cent of all dividends in the FTSE 100, said it would increase its third-quarter dividend by 64 per cent to 8.705 pence per share.

Mr Hayward said: "BP is very aware that in the current volatile climate dividends and the strength of balance sheets are a matter of concern to investors, including pension funds."

Last month, BP acquired natural gas properties in Arkansas from Chesapeake Energy Corporation in a $1.9 billion deal. It paid $1.75 billion for Chesapeake's assets in Oklahoma in July.