BP said in a statement it made 6.23 billion US dollars in the three months to September 30, falling from 6.46 billion dollars a year earlier.
It came as the company was hit by problems at its Prudhoe Bay oil field in Alaska and delays to the opening of the key "Thunder Horse" platform in the Gulf of Mexico.
That was 8,000 barrels a day less than a year ago when production was devastated by hurricanes which battered its rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.
It was also 202,000 barrels below the level reached in the second quarter of this year and underlined the problems facing BP and its chief executive Lord Browne.
BP's Prudhoe Bay oil field, the largest in the US, was partially closed last August after corrosion was found in pipelines. It followed a massive oil spill in which 270,000 gallons of crude leaked into the Alaskan bay.
