London - Oil giant British Petroleum (BP) Tuesday reported third-quarter profits of 6.4 billion pounds (10 billion dollars) on the back of record oil prices.

The company's results for the period between July and September are an astonishing 148 per cent above the same period last year, figures showed.

Its profits came as crude oil prices hit a new peak above 147 dollars a barrel in mid-July.

Oil prices have since fallen by more than half from their July peak to just above 60 dollars a barrel.

"Although it has since fallen away sharply, the high oil price of the third quarter obviously helped our absolute result," BP chief executive Tony Hayward said. dpa at wjh