BP (BP.US) anticipates a challenging Q4 performance as the CEO postpones the investor day due to health concerns.

BP.US said Tuesday before the market opened that its fourth-quarter results would be affected by lower oil and gas production, refining margins and trading, while it delayed its investor day due to CEO Murray Auchincloss' planned medical procedure.

The company said the CEO's surgery recovery process was going well and he would return to the office in February, with the capital markets event delayed to February 26 in London. The meeting was due to take place on February 11 in New York, where the fourth-quarter and 2024 fiscal-year results would be announced.

In the trading update, BP said it expected fourth-quarter upstream production to be below the 2.4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day reported in the third quarter.

BP said the average Brent crude oil price for the quarter was US$74.73 per barrel, lower than the US$80.34 per barrel in the third quarter, while its refining market average margin fell to US$13.10 per barrel, down nearly US$3.5 per barrel from the previous quarter.

However, the company expects a slight rise in natural gas prices to partially offset the financial impact of lower oil prices.

The company said the decline in refining margins, along with turnaround and maintenance activities, would result in a decrease in profits of up to US$300 million sequentially, with further reductions of US$200 million to US$400 million in the oil production and operations segment.

BP also said it currently expects the cost associated with foreign exchange losses to be approximately US$6 billion, compared with the previous guidance of US$300 million to US$400 million.