BP expects to freeze its dividend this year, its chief executive has told the Financial Times, as the company struggles to adjust to the plunge in the price of oil to about $45 a barrel.

A failure to increase the dividend, BP's first freeze since 1999, would disappoint investors hoping for income growth. The company paid out more in dividends than any other British company last year, accounting for £6.7bn ($9.4bn) of the £58.6bn paid out by the constituents of the FTSE All-Shares index.