Bob Dudley, chief executive of BP, yesterday acknowledged that the company was going through “testing” times as he unveiled poor second-quarter results hit by falling production and weak oil and US natural gas prices.

The UK major is still struggling more than two years after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Its share price is weighed down by uncertainty over the final tally of its liabilities related to the disaster and by the future of its stake in the Russian joint venture TNK-BP, which it put up for sale in June. The message from management was that there would be more pain to come.

Adjusted earnings for the quarter stood at $3.7 billion, down 35 per cent on a year ago. A key reason for the drop is BP’s increased focus on safety since the disaster. It has been carrying out maintenance on some of its biggest oil projects. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2012)