BP is working on an assumption oil prices will average $50 to $55 a barrel next year as global inventories gradually return to normal levels.

The US justice department and five states have finalised a settlement of more than $20bn arising from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

A US jury is deciding whether a former BP engineer broke the law or harmlessly swiped his finger across a mobile phone when he deleted hundreds of text messages in the aftermath of the deadly Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

BP was today ordered to respond to allegations of natural gas market manipulation and threatened with fines of US $28.8m (€21.75m) by US federal energy regulators, in the latest round of its legal troubles in America.