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.

A trial over the worst offshore oil disaster in US history has been delayed for a week to allow more time for settlement talks, according to two people close to the case.

The under-pressure boss of BP today insisted the beleaguered oil giant had reached a “turning point” despite production falling as it continues to sell off billions of dollars worth of assets in the wake of last year’s Gulf of Mexico oil disaster.

FOR seven weeks, the greatest superpower the world has seen has been unable to stop a cocktail of oil and methane – some suggest up to 25,000 barrels a day but no one really knows – pouring into the Gulf of Mexico from BP’s broken, deep-ocean Macondo well.