BP has become the latest big energy group to set out even deeper cuts to spending over the coming years, aiming to slash billions of dollars by 2017 under a plan that assumes a sustained slump in oil prices. The energy company, the first of the large US and European oil and gas groups to report third-quarter figures, said on Tuesday that underlying replacement cost profits — analysts’ preferred measure — fell 40 per cent to $1.8bn from the same period a year ago.