LONDON — BP, the British oil company, on Tuesday reported a $1.4 billion loss for the second quarter, its operating profits wiped out by $4.8 billion in write-downs on refineries, shale gas assets in the United States and a long-delayed project in Alaska.

The earnings did nothing to assuage the concerns of investors, who were already discontented with the performance of the century-old company and its first American chief executive, Robert W. Dudley. BP’s shares fell nearly 5 percent in New York trading on Tuesday.

“This is a very, very disappointing set of results,” said Peter Hutton, an oil analyst at RBC Capital Markets in London. “They missed across all fronts by a wide margin.” Stripping out the $4.8 billion in write-downs, BP’s results were still 17 percent below the consensus estimates of analysts, Mr. Hutton said.

According to Mr. Dudley, BP is writing off a combined $2.1 billion on shale gas acreage because of lower natural gas prices, as well as a project called Liberty on the North Slope in Alaska that BP recently halted because of environmental and other concerns.