 The oil giant BP announced its first annual loss for nearly two decades yesterday, dragged down by a whopping $41bn (?25bn) charge to pay for the Gulf of Mexico disaster last summer which unleashed the worst offshore oil spill in history.  Despite fourth-quarter profits of $4.4bn, the company recorded an annual loss of $4.6bn, compared with profits of $14bn in 2009. But BP was keen to stress its confidence in its financial future, reporting underlying earnings of $20.5bn and reinstating the dividend at 7 cents per share, about half its level before it was axed to help meet the slick clean-up costs. The company also announced plans to sell two US refineries, at Texas City and Carson, to concentrate on more competitive assets at Whiting, Toledo and Cherry Point.  But of greater significance than either the black hole in the company's finances or the decision to halve its North american refinery capacity, or even the reinstatement of the dividend, was the vision of the future set out by the newly installed chief executive, Bob Dudley.  BP faced nothing short of an existential crisis in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon explosion last april, which left 11 people dead, vast swaths of US coastal waters polluted, and the company's reputation in ruins. BP stock dropped to well below half its pre-spill value. Mr Dudley's predecessor, Tony Hayward, was forced out of his job after a series of PR gaffes left him as public enemy number one in america. and there were questions about whether BP had a future in the Gulf of Mexico at all, let alone other environmentally sensitive regions such as alaska or the Canadian tar sands.  When Mr Dudley took over in October, the priority was to improve the company's safety procedures. and there is every suggestion that Mark Bly, the man appointed to lead the charge, is making progress. The company has suspended operations at several rigs around the world in recent months in response to newly stringent safety rules.  But there were also longer-term questions about the future of the company. Mr Dudley laid out unequivocal answers yesterday. BP will stick to its core strength: exploring and drilling for oil. The company is to double its exploration investment in the coming years, focusing on either giant or technically challenging fields and selling out of areas which no longer fit the more focused portfolio profile. Of crucial importance will be partnership arrangements with national oil companies. Notwithstanding the row that has blown up with BP's Russian joint venture TNK-BP (see report, right), the $10bn share-swap deal with Rosneft to explore the arctic's Kara Sea is the first of many.  Mr Dudley was clear yesterday that the company would not be cowed by the Deepwater Horizon tragedy, but must put it to use. "after the Gulf of Mexico we had the choice of stepping back, of losing confidence in our ability to operate with these technologies and in these conditions," he said. "But we don't think that is the right thing: it would be irresponsible of us not to take the lessons and change the company to the core, and then take that around the world and help change the global industry."  He was also unforgiving in his analysis of what options are available to international oil majors in a world where just 9 per cent of reserves are outside the grip of national companies, compared with 90 per cent 30 years ago. "The role of an international oil company like BP is the technology and know-how at the more difficult ends of the spectrum, working with the national oil companies," Mr Dudley said. "If it cannot do that, it probably doesn't have a future."  Hence Mr Dudley's plans for BP. The company remains committed to its renewables portfolio, and to refinery assets it is keen to expand in fast-growing asian economies such as China and India. But the upstream division is the core of the smaller, more flexible BP that will emerge from the $30bn divestment programme set in train to raise money to pay for the Gulf of Mexico spill. The company made final investment decisions on 15 projects last year, including several in the North Sea, angola and azerbaijan.  Such a rate of activi 