BP could face ban as US launches criminal investigation

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

De beursverliezen staan al lang niet meer in verhouding met een
financiele vergoeding voor de schade.
BP heeft te laconiek, naar de smaak van de Amerikaanse burgers,
gereageerd op de gebeurtenissen en had met een meer voortvarende houding
veel meer kunnen redden.
Zo omvatten de door BP gegeven schattingen van de schade alleen de
waarde van de afgesloten kontrakten en niet voor de nog af te sluiten
kontrakten. Daardoor geven ze een ongeloofwaardig beeld van hun
inspanningen.

Groet / Cees

BP Plc's U.S. shares ($36.33) were off 15% after the oil giant's latest
attempt to plug the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico failed. Shares of BP
have declined nearly 30% since the April 20 catastrophe, which resulted
in the deaths of 11 workers off the Louisiana coast.

Other energy companies involved in the BP disaster were also hit.
Transocean Ltd. RIG 50.02 declined 12%, with shares of the deepwater
driller and owner of the oil rig involved in the BP spill down 38% since
the spill began.

Shares of Anadarko Petroleum Corp. APC 42.25, which holds a 25% stake in
the Deepwater Horizon well, fell 20%. Halliburton Co. HAL 21.18, the
engineer responsible for the initial effort to seal the well, dropped
15%, leaving its shares off roughly 25% since April 20, while blowout
preventer manufacturer Cameron International Corp. CAM 31.95 shares fell
12%, off about 21% since the explosion.

Gulf oil spill: BP could face ban as US launches criminal investigation
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/01/gulf-oil-spill-bp-future/print
Oil company's future in doubt as attorney general opens probe into worst
oil spill in American history
     * Tim Webb and Ed Pilkington in New York
     * guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 1 June 2010 22.15 BST

The future of BP was in doubt tonight as the US government launched a
criminal investigation into the Gulf of Mexico disaster and some
commentators predicted the oil giant would face an operating ban in the
country.

The US attorney general, Eric Holder, opened a criminal and civil probe
into the worst oil spill in American history. Though he did not specify
which companies would be in the cross-hairs of the investigation, the
actions of BP are likely to come under close scrutiny.

"We will closely examine the actions of those involved in the spill. If
we find evidence of illegal behaviour, we will be extremely forceful in
our response," Holder said.

BP shares plummeted by 13% today, wiping £12bn off the company's value,
as financial markets reacted to the news that oil is likely to continue
spewing into the Gulf of Mexico for at least two more months. It was the
worst one-day fall for 18 years for what was once Britain's most
valuable company.

Political pressure is also mounting from the US, where BP's ongoing
failure to stem the leak has led for calls to President Obama to take a
more hardline approach.

Robert Reich, the former labour secretary under Bill Clinton, today
called for BP's US operations to be seized by the government until the
leak had been plugged. A group called Seize is planning demonstrations
in 50 US cities this week and is calling for the company to be stripped
of its assets.

Holder's criminal investigation was launched just hours after Barack
Obama promised to prosecute any parties found to have broken the law in
the lead up to the disaster.

The president dropped several threatening comments into a 10-minute
address from the White House to mark the start of an independent
commission he has convened to look into the causes of explosion at the
Deepwater Horizon oil well.

City experts advised clients to sell shares following BP's admission
over the weekend that the much vaunted "top kill" attempt to bung up the
well had failed.

One stockbroker, Arbuthnot, captured the gloomy mood around the company,
saying that the disaster "has a real possibility of breaking the company".

The key question, it added, was now "can BP survive?". It said that
judging by the increasingly hostile rhetoric coming from the White
House, BP might even be prevented from operating in the US, which could
make it a takeover target.

BP is the largest oil producer in the Gulf of Mexico, and its production
growth plans for the next decade are dependent in part on finding new
deepwater reserves.

BP said today that its costs from the disaster had risen to $990m (£675m).

Although it is impossible to quantify the full financial impact of the
disaster, it seems set to run into the tens of billions of dollars, and
the costs will mount as long as the leak continues.

BP will attempt a riskier way of stopping the leak this week, but this
could result in the amount of oil increasing and the chances of success
appear slim. It hopes to plug the spill in two months, when the first of
two relief wells are completed, but this operation could be hampered by
the imminent hurricane season.

Today Obama called the oil spill the "greatest environmental disaster of
its kind in our history" and said "if laws were broken leading to this
death and destruction, my solemn pledge is we will bring these people to
justice".

He added that for years the relationship between the oil companies and
their regulators has been "too cosy" and said "we will take a
comprehensive look at how the oil and gas industry operates".

The US justice department is expected to pursue a dual-track approach in
its investigation of BP and the other main entities involved: Transocean
and Halliburton.

One track will explore whether the company broke rules in the days and
months before the explosion, and the other will look at whether it
contravened any environmental laws.

So far the Obama administration has moved cautiously on the legal side
of the oil disaster, aware of the awkwardness of issuing criminal
proceedings against a company upon which the federal government
continues to remain deeply dependent for the shutting off of the
stricken well and for the clean-up operation.

But as political pressure has mounted on the administration, and with
Obama himself coming under fire for being insufficiently aggressive in
dealing with the catastrophe, the administration has shown renewed
willingness to take on BP.

As for BP, it has taken steps in the past few days to beef up its PR
operation, in an attempt to limit some of the massive damage that has
been dealt to its reputation. The company has recruited as head of the
firm's US media relations Anne Womack-Kolton, who was the then
vice-president Dick Cheney's press secretary in the 2004 presidential
election.

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