Knock on effect of BP's $20 Billion cleanup....

StevieJ

Generali wrote: »

Before we get too excited, take a look at the BP forum on the Fool website:

http://boards.fool.co.uk/bp-plc-bp-50207.aspx?mid=11953714

Lots of interesting posts on there including a discussion about which bits of BP are and aren't in US hands. According to a couple of posters, BP USA can be demerged from the rest of BP and be allowed to sink or swim as the situation permits. The US Government probably doesn't have any realistic way to act against the rest of BP and the Directors would be in breech of the 'fiduciary responsibility' they hold to their shareholders if they voluntarily pay out from the rest of BP more than the value of BP USA.

No idea if it's true or not. The arguements are very convincing though.

And there are always those Persian wells to be dug, hello British Iranian Oil

Generali

StevieJ wrote: »

And there are always those Persian wells to be dug, hello British Iranian Oil

Apparently BP is 40% British owned, 40% US owned 20% elsewhere. They are no more British Petroleum than they are British Iranian Oil, Standard Oil, Amoco or the Anglo-Persian Oil Company.

Politics eh? Sheesh!

StevieJ

Generali wrote: »

Apparently BP is 40% British owned, 40% US owned 20% elsewhere. They are no more British Petroleum than they are British Iranian Oil, Standard Oil, Amoco or the Anglo-Persian Oil Company.

Politics eh? Sheesh!

And I dare say it mostly the US company and employees that are involved in this mess.

Wookster

setmefree2 wrote: »

Couldn't agree more. The self-righteous indignation from Obama has turned my stomach and, I have to say, he has really gone down in my estimations. (Not that he cares LOL.)

The yanks go around this planet polluting without a care - well now they've really gone and done it....

Bang on the money!

Its enormously hypocritical for Obama to be playing the angel card when the US is the worlds worst polluter.

Admittedly BP have handled the PR awfully - their Chairman should go imo, the Chair is their for exactly this sort of thing and he has failed miserably, however the US gvt's/ BP's clean up effort would be much more effective if they were working together.

Given the rhetoric coming out of the US administration, hiving off and declaring chapter 11 on their US activities is probably not a bad idea - better that then uncapped liabilities!

Thrugelmir

setmefree2 wrote: »

Couldn't agree more. The self-righteous indignation from Obama has turned my stomach and, I have to say, he has really gone down in my estimations. (Not that he cares LOL.)

Most likely as at "home" he has failed to deliver what he promised. Full of words but little concrete action.

setmefree2

Wookster wrote: »

Bang on the money!

Its enormously hypocritical for Obama to be playing the angel card when the US is the worlds worst polluter.

Admittedly BP have handled the PR awfully - their Chairman should go imo, the Chair is their for exactly this sort of thing and he has failed miserably, however the US gvt's/ BP's clean up effort would be much more effective if they were working together.

Given the rhetoric coming out of the US administration, hiving off and declaring chapter 11 on their US activities is probably not a bad idea - better that then uncapped liabilities!

Here is a reference to an Article in Time Magazine dated June 8th 2010 - you may have seen it

For those who've forgotten this disaster killed 12, 000 people and injured 500,000 in 1984.

The most prominent name in the latter category is Warren Anderson, the American CEO of Union Carbide, the U.S. parent company. He is now 89 years old. Arrested by Indian police when he visited the disaster site, he was released on bail and flew out of the country. He continues to be a fugitive from Indian law and hence has not been tried. (He is believed to be living somewhere in New York state.) At the same time, no one has been assigned responsibility for cleaning up Bhopal's ground zero, which researchers and activists say continues to leach toxic chemicals into the groundwater, used by thousands of families.

There is still outrage that the U.S. refuses to extradite Warren Anderson to face criminal charges in India.

Investigations over the years have shown that the Bhopal plant design was faulty and that there was next to no emergency preparedness — issues that the parent company in the U.S. apparently knew about, according to the groups that conducted the studies. The company was operating in India with standards unacceptable in the U.S.

After first suing the company for $3.3 billion in 1985, New Delhi announced an out-of-court settlement of $470 million in February 1989.

The hope in India is that U.S. courts will be more amenable to the requests of Bhopal's victims now that America has a huge environmental disaster in its own backyard. The Bhopal activists say the Indian government must join the case in the U.S. as a plaintiff (indeed, it owns the land on which the Union Carbide factory was located). "Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should be inspired by President Obama's recent commitment toward making BP pay every cent for its oil spill," says Satinath Sarangi of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action. "And the U.S. government must follow the same standards on corporate liability for U.S. corporations operating in India as it expects for corporations operating in the U.S."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1995029,00.html#ixzz0r7zjeGfr

Double stantards or what?

How can Obama and his administartion have the bare faced cheek to take the tone they do....

setmefree2

And if that doesn't make you want to weep look at this:-

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1943455,00.html


I wish someone would tell Mr Obama (and that stupid commitee on the hill) that he is a f***ing hypocrite (pardon my french )

worldtraveller

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Like relying on property as an investment. It demonstrates that a broad portfolio of investments is the only way of mitigating risk.

As nothing lasts for ever.

So true, so true!

I posted this on the BP "off the hook" thread on the 6th June:

30th April, 2010
Shares are down 5.3p, or 0.91% at 579.1p

Michele della Vigna at Goldman Sachs said "....We believe this reaction is overdone and reiterate our Buy on BP."

Bank of America/Merrill Lynch analyst Alejandro Demichelis agrees. "....We maintain our Buy rating and 750p."

Citywire

6th May, 2010
"The brokers (JP Morgan Cazenove & Panmure Gordon) reckon BP’s shares are a ‘buy’. BP closed 6.5p higher at 565p yesterday...

.....I paid 451p per share in October, 2008, which you may recall was the last time many investors convinced themselves the world was coming to an end. BP remains quite a chunky holding by the standards of my self-invested personal pension (SIPP). I have often wished that I bought more. Now I will."

Telegraph.co.uk

7th May, 2010
Investment Column: BP shares sell-off is overdone so buy now

Our view: Buy

Share price: 567p (+2p)

The Independent

28th May, 2010
Oil analyst Jason Kenney of inG said: 'We have seen a good rally in the stock on the basis that the intervention seems to be working.

If we do get full confirmation that the well is dead, BP's share price could see a significant up-tick.' He said the shares were a buy anywhere below 600p.

thisismoney.co.uk

The muppet, Ian Cowie, writing in the Telegraph on the 6th May, must feel a bit of a fool now, and who knows what value he has lost in his SIPP? Long term, maybe it will recover, but what a waste, at least short/medium term!

For those that don't know, the BP SP is now currently around 360!

StevieJ

I bought at £4.38 and sold March (along with Shell) for £6.30 to crystallise a capital gain, I only bought back into Shell (some good vibes at the time). Lucky or what

setmefree2

For anyone who's interested

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/30/oil-spills-nigeria-niger-delta-shell

Nigeria's agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignore it

The Deepwater Horizon disaster caused headlines around the world, yet the people who live in the Niger delta have had to live with environmental catastrophes for decades

In fact, more oil is spilled from the delta's network of terminals, pipes, pumping stations and oil platforms every year than has been lost in the Gulf of Mexico, the site of a major ecological catastrophe caused by oil that has poured from a leak triggered by the explosion that wrecked BP's Deepwater Horizon rig last month.

On 1 May this year a ruptured ExxonMobil pipeline in the state of Akwa Ibom spilled more than a million gallons into the delta over seven days before the leak was stopped. Local people demonstrated against the company but say they were attacked by security guards. Community leaders are now demanding $1bn in compensation for the illness and loss of livelihood they suffered. Few expect they will succeed. In the meantime, thick balls of tar are being washed up along the coast.
Within days of the Ibeno spill, thousands of barrels of oil were spilled when the nearby Shell Trans Niger pipeline was attacked by rebels. A few days after that, a large oil slick was found floating on Lake Adibawa in Bayelsa state and another in Ogoniland. "We are faced with incessant oil spills from rusty pipes, some of which are 40 years old," said Bonny Otavie, a Bayelsa MP.