UK’s BP slumps to $6.5-bn annual loss on oil price collapse

British energy giant BP said on Tuesday that it slumped into a vast loss in 2015, ravaged by the dramatic collapse in oil prices.

BP suffered a loss after taxation of $6.48 billion (5.97 billion euros) last year, compared with a net profit of $3.78 billion in 2014, it said in a results statement. Annual earnings were hit by a $2.6-billion charge in the fourth quarter that was mostly linked to impairments in the upstream division, or exploration and production, as well as restructuring costs.

Underlying replacement-cost profit -- which excludes fluctuations in the value of crude oil inventories -- more than halved to $5.9 billion.

The earnings measure tumbled to just $196 million in the fourth quarter, from 2.2 billion a year earlier. "The lower underlying result was predominantly driven by the impact of steeply lower oil and gas prices on BP's upstream segment," the company said. Oil prices have crashed about 75 per cent since mid-2014, hit by the slowing global economy, the strong US dollar -- and a chronic supply glut that has been exacerbated by OPEC's refusal to curb output.