Falling oil prices hit BP profits

By The Newsroom

Published 2nd Feb 2010, 08:16 BST

ENERGY giant BP said today that annual profits almost halved as the effect of lower oil prices took its toll.

The UK company said its full-year surplus was 13.96 billion US dollars (8.75bn) in the year to December 31 - down 45 per cent on 2008.

Oil prices slumped in 2009 from their peak of 147 US dollars a barrel during the previous year. Profits for the final quarter rose 33 per cent to 3.45 billion US dollars (2.16bn), but this was below City forecasts.