Shares Dive As BP Reports £3.6bn Annual Loss

BP's market value has taken a hit of almost 9% on the FTSE 100 after the company announced thousands of fresh job cuts and a £3.6bn ($5.2bn) annual loss - blamed on the world oil price slump.

Its shares - a major constituent on the FTSE - were the biggest fallers on a day when wider mining and energy stocks took a hit amid renewed pressure on Brent crude.

The UK's top share index closed 2.3% down - wiping 35.6bn from its value.

BP was in sharp focus today.

It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) had reported a profit of £5.6bn ($8.1bn) in 2014. Brent crude has dipped to around $30 a barrel since, having topped $115 in the summer of 2014.

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 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).

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.

Finance director Brian Gilvary said: "Should current conditions persist for longer than anticipated, we expect that all the actions we are taking will capture more deflation."

BP took charges of £1.8bn ($2.6bn) against the value of assets in the Gulf of Mexico, US shale oil fields and Libya amid the energy price fall.