LONDON, May 7 (Reuters) - BP reported on Tuesday

first-quarter earnings of $2.7 billion, down 40% from a year

earlier and missing forecasts due to lower oil and gas prices

and a U.S. refinery outage.

The London-based company held its dividend steady at 7.27

cents per share and maintained the rate of its share buyback

programme at $1.75 billion over the next three months, similar

to the previous period.

BP's first-quarter underlying replacement cost profit, the

company's definition of net income, reached $2.7 billion,

missing forecasts of $2.87 billion in a company-provided survey

of analysts.

That compared with a $3 billion profit in the previous

quarter and $5 billion a year earlier.

The results reflected lower energy prices and the impact of

the Whiting refinery outage and a significantly weaker fuels

margin, BP said. Those were partially offset by significantly

lower level of turnaround activity at BP facilities as well as a

strong oil trading result and higher realised refining margins.