BP on Tuesday became the latest energy giant to say it would slash investment this year as tumbling oil prices cut into the group's profits, AFP reported.
British company BP said spending in 2015 was expected to total about $20 billion (17.6 billion euros), down from a previous guidance of $24-26 billion.
"We have now entered a new and challenging phase of low oil prices through the near and medium term," BP chief executive Bob Dudley said in a group earnings statement.
BP said underlying replacement cost profit - a measure of earnings watched by the market - dropped almost 10 percent to $12.1 billion in 2014 compared with a year earlier.
BP booked a $3.6-billion net charge in the fourth quarter, which it said reflected "the impact of the near-term lower oil price environment, revisions to reserves and other factors".
As a result it reported a replacement cost loss of $969 million for the final three months of last year.
BP's annual net profit tumbled to $3.78 billion from $23.45 billion in 2013 but the figure was skewed by a huge one-off gain the previous year earned from the sale of its interest in joint venture TNK-BP to Russia's Rosneft.
