LONDON—BP PLC's fourth-quarter profit fell 25%, hit by lower refining margins and lost income from asset sales, as the company continued to try to recover from the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill.

BP has sold close to $40 billion in assets and taken more than $42 billion in write-downs related to legal settlements and cleanup costs since the Gulf of Mexico spill in April 2010. The company also pleaded guilty to a dozen felony counts in the U.S. related to the accident, in which 11 workers died.

...