BP Stocks Sink in Response to Heaviest Ever Annual Loss

• Oil Company posts annual loss of $6.5 billion
• Company maintains dividend amid 7,000 redundancies

Oil giant BP Plc reported its heaviest ever loss of $6.5 billion in the full year results announced on Tuesday. The global top 100 company also stated its plan to systematically cut 7,000 jobs by the end of 2017. In the immediate aftermath, the company's already dwindling share price suffered a further 8% fall.

Strained by the rising costs from the 2010 Gulf oil spill payments of $55 billion and falling global oil prices, BP has joined other oil industry giants, Exxon and Chevron in reporting losses for the quarter and the year.

Although BP Plc reported a drop of 51% in its net-income last year, it has managed to maintain its dividend. The oil giant payed $7.5 billion to its shareholders in the loss-making year. While prioritising the "shareholder distributions over the long term", Bob Dudley, BP group's 60-year-old CEO also chalked out his medium-term plans to reduce the staff by 9%. This also exposes the company's reduced cash flow, which plunged by $12 billion last year.