BP Experience Huge Deficit £3.6bn Loss

The oil giant BP announced 3,000 job cuts in its global downstream operations which include refineries, trading, fuels marketing and service stations in addition to the recently announced 4,000 upstream exploration and production job cuts  which include 600 in the North Sea.

The firm had a profit of £5.6bn ($8.1bn) in 2014. Brent crude has dipped to around $30 a barrel, having topped $115 in the summer of 2014.

BP has announced thousands of fresh job cuts as it crashed to a £3.6bn ($5.2bn) annual loss for 2015 amid an oil price slump.

The total of 7,000 represents nearly 9% of its workforce. BP was unable to say how many of the latest downstream cuts would be in the UK.

Chief executive Bob Dudley said: "We are continuing to move rapidly to adapt and rebalance BP for the changing environment."

BP's profits were weighed down by the ongoing cost of the deadly Gulf of Mexico oil well blast in 2010 which accounted for £8.1bn ($11.7bn) over the course of 2015. The total charge for this now stands at £38.6bn ($55.5bn).

On an underlying basis, annual earnings still fell by more than half, to £4.1bn ($5.9bn). Shares fell 7%.

But the company, a stalwart of many UK pension funds, maintained its dividend at 7p (10 cents) per share.

BP said oil prices "continue to be challenging in the near term". It has been cutting back billions from investment and day-to-day operating costs in the wake of the slump and indicated that it could go further should the current downturn continue for an extended period.