BP announces $4.2bn loss as oil prices continue to fall

Oil giant BP swung to a US$4.2bn loss in the first six months of the year after taking another €9.8bn hit from its Deepwater Horizon disaster and oil prices continued to plunge.

The group tumbled into the red after the additional charge for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico explosion and devastating oil spill left it nursing hefty losses in the second quarter of $6.3bn.

BP reached an $18.7bn settlement in July with the US Department of Justice over the oil spill, which it said would settle all US federal, state and local claims - taking its total bill for the tragedy so far to $54.6bn.

Even with this charge stripped out, BP posted sharply lower half-year underlying replacement cost profits of $3.9bn against $6.9bn a year earlier as it suffered amid falling global oil prices.