BP on Tuesday swung to a loss in the second quarter, as earnings were hit by lower oil prices and a multibillion-dollar charge relating to the deal it reached earlier this month to settle U.S. federal and state claims over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. The U.K. oil giant said its replacement cost loss—a number analogous to the net income that U.S. oil companies report—was $6.27 billion, compared with a profit of $3.18 billion a year earlier. The sharp decline includes a $9.8 billion pretax charge that BP recorded as part of an $18.7 billion agreement with the U.S. government and five states to settle legal claims relating to its Deepwater Horizon fatal oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The net charge recorded by the company for nonoperating items amounted to $7.5 billion. It […]