BP Posts Loss, Will Cut Global Work Force 10% : Energy: The firm says it misjudged the length and severity of the recession. Officials want to focus on core oil operations.

British Petroleum Co., adjusting to lean economic times, said Thursday that it was laying off 10% of its workers worldwide, including about 2,000 in the United States. The oil giant also said it had taken one-time charges that left it with a $1.24-billion loss in the second quarter.

BP appeared to be trying with one bold stroke to write off mistakes of the past that led in June to the ouster of Chairman Robert Horton.

“BP is a great company which has been going through a sticky patch and which will emerge from this period, I believe, much strengthened,” the new chairman, Lord Ashburton, told a news conference Thursday afternoon.

BP managers acknowledged that their company had grown too large for the current sluggish economy as it drifted away from its core oil operations. They acknowledged that they misjudged the length and severity of the recession, which has been hard on the refining and marketing divisions of big oil companies.

But they said they are slowing the pace of future growth and expect BP to emerge in good shape regardless of the uncertainties of the economy and the oil market.

BP plans to pull out of other businesses such as its nutrition operations that provide feed for hogs and chickens and chemical operations that are not directly linked to hydrocarbons.

Hundreds of BP scientists engaged in what BP managers called speculative, nonessential research will see their jobs lost as BP cuts its work force by 11,500 people to trim annual costs by roughly $950 million.

About 80% of the layoffs will be in Europe.

Most of the other layoffs will be spread among BP’s American headquarters in Cleveland and its U.S. exploration and production, and refining and marketing branches. BP declined to elaborate.

The big loss at BP came as the company took $1.75 billion in restructuring charges that erased what would have been quarterly gains of $511 million. BP had reported a profit of $461 million for the same period a year earlier.

During the first six months of 1992, BP reported a loss of $1.35 billion, contrasted with a gain of $480 million for the year-earlier period.

BP shares fell $3.875, or nearly 8%, to close at $45.375 on the New York Stock Exchange, where it was the most active issue.

BP’s revenues were not immediately made available.