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| BP Capitulation to Obama Hits British Retirees |
| 2010-06-17 |
| The crisis engulfing BP plumbed new depths last night as President Obama bullied the company into depositing £13.5billion into a fund to settle compensation claims for the calamitous Gulf of Mexico oil spill. After a face-to-face showdown with the President at the White House, BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg revealed the payment meant the oil giant would be forced to suspend dividends to its shareholders until at least next year. The news sent BP shares plunging to a 14-year low of £3.37, and is a major blow for Britain's pension funds, which rely on BP's dividend income to provide £1 in every £6 they receive each year Since the fatal explosion in April, the value of the company - formerly Britain's biggest - has halved to £63billion. BP's backdown came as David Cameron finally broke his controversial silence over Mr Obama's attacks on the company. The Prime Minister revealed he told President Obama not to 'go after' BP 'for the sake of it'. Yesterday's dramatic capitulation came as U.S. officials and lawmakers escalated the ugly rhetoric over the disaster. |
| Posted by:wt |
| #18 BP Capitulation to Obama Hits British Retirees Simple really, Obama hates the British. |
| Posted by: DMFD 2010-06-17 23:29 |
| #17 A little perspective. The Exxon Valdez oil spill happened March 24, 1989. Back in 1989, Exxon executives, including Don Cornett, promised to take care of everyone affected by the spill. “You have my word we will make you whole again," he said at the time. In total, Exxon spent more than $3.8 billion in clean up costs, fines and compensation. But in 1994, an Anchorage jury found Exxon acted recklessly and awarded victims of the spill $5 billion in punitive damages. An appeals court later cut that award in half. After nearly 15 years in appeals, the case finally reached the U.S. Supreme Court. The justices reduced that $2.5 billion in punitive damages to just more than $507 million. 20 years after the spill the legal battles were not over. Both sides were awaiting an appeals court decision to see if Exxon Mobil had to pay interest on the $507 million award. In June 2009 A federal appeals court ordered Exxon to pay 5.9 percent interest to plaintiffs from the date of the original judgment in 1996. In a split decision, both parties were ordered to pay their own legal fees. In early 2010 some of the original plaintiffs received compensation checks from Exxon. Others are still awaiting further court decisions. |
| Posted by: junkiron 2010-06-17 21:14 |
| #16 What pisses me off is that governments are exempt from the consequences of their legislation. I don't know who was at fault in the BP oil rig explosion, but if half what I hear about safety regulations in mines and oil/gas drilling here in WA is true, trying to conform to safety regulations is the biggest safety hazard. BTW, BP's stock has fallen 50% since the rig explosion. Even though BP is the largest US producer, probably far less than 50% of their assets are in the USA. Which means their US liabilities exceed their assets (or so the market says). The rational decision for them is to extract as much cash as they can while delaying through the courts. Then make the US government come after them in UK/European/Other courts, and good luck with that. And as I mentioned the other day, BP are buying far future oil futures at a large premium over current prices, which indicates they will pump as much oil as they can as quickly as possible to maximize short term revenue and invest that revenue outside the USA. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2010-06-17 20:58 |
| #15 "Nice petroleum company ya got here, it would be a shame if it got ... you know ... nationalized. Ain't that right Rahm?" "Yeah, boss, dat's right" |
| Posted by: DMFD 2010-06-17 20:35 |
| #14 This will make your blood pressure go up. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2010-06-17 20:21 |
| #13 "The comment about the little people" I think he actually said "small people," John. I'll cut him some slack, since English isn't his first language. I remember JFK telling the people of Berlin (in German) that he was a doughnut. ;-p |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2010-06-17 20:17 |
| #12 The comment about the little people reminded me of Leona Helmsley's (Queen of mean) remark a few years back when she wasn't ground temperature (or the temperature of hell). The BP hearings today were the biggest farce I've witnessed lately (except for the rest). |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-06-17 19:47 |
| #11 More than one third of BP's stock holders are U.S. investors. Check out your 401k to see how big a chunk of the 20 billion your will be paying. |
| Posted by: junkiron 2010-06-17 18:17 |
| #10 The fauning POM masses who cheered on presidential candiate Obama may be singing a different tune this week. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2010-06-17 15:51 |
| #9 The head of BP is not a native English speaker. No doubt at least part of the problem is that he went with a literal translation from his mother tongue, which probably means something like 'ordinary people'. And clearly, he is more an engineering type than a smooth politician, skilled at measuring his words. We've got a smooth talker in our honourable president -- and even he manages to insult people without intending to... although he does quite well when he intends, as well. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2010-06-17 15:46 |
| #8 1/6 of their money in one company? How dumb is that? |
| Posted by: mojo 2010-06-17 13:28 |
| #7 The little peoople comment pissed me off and not kinda. I think the 20 billion is gonna be low. Ever wonder how you could get this number before the well is plugged? I think O got his cut for limiting the hurt to BP. I think it'll be way more than 20 bill and we are gonna be stuck with the bill. |
| Posted by: BrerRabbit 2010-06-17 12:47 |
| #6 P2K I understand the point you're making. I'm sure there are responsible oil companies that can drill offshore without accident but I can guarantee you the general public is not gonna buy it. There is no way this is going to go down well for Big Oil. Commander Zero is already reading from his teleprompter about how this crisis underscores the need for more clean, green energy. He won't want to let this crisis go to waste. Then he'll raise our taxes so we can buy more windmills from China on those easy credit terms that the ChiComs love to give us. Kinda makes me wonder how some of these crises come to be. They just dovetail so well with His agenda. But it doesn't let BP off the hook. I get no joy from the suffering of old folks in the UK. Maybe they can get together and demand that some heads roll. But in the meantime they have to pay. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2010-06-17 11:51 |
| #5 ...don't forget the enviro winnies who drive deep water drilling because they get proven reserves, much closer to shore and accessible with more reliable technology, declared off limits through their politician sock puppets. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2010-06-17 09:38 |
| #4 Sorry you guys but your BIG BRITISH CORPORATION just took a shit on us and you damn well better pay. I'm as Anglophile as anybody but here's a little item from today's Drudgereport.com about how BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanbarg "cares about the little people." He's a big, big man in charge of a big, big corporation but he cares about the little people. Sure he does. I know because I watched him say it last night on the TV news. His condescending tone of voice kinda pissed me off. You think your pensioners are gonna have a hard time? What about the shrimp fishermen in Louisiana who are gonna be out of work for the foreseeable future? They're gonna have to start looking for new lines of work because the shrimp are all dead. These people are handing their cars back to the dealers because all of a sudden they can't make their payments because they are out of work. They're gonna be defaulting on their mortgages because they are out of work. Restaurant owners, hotel workers, fishermen throughout four states are all screwed and you expect me to cry about your pensioners? Didn't they know that BP had the worst safety record of all the major oil companies? Didn't it ever occur to them to get together and ask about that at a stockholders meeting? No? Well, I must admit I don't look to closely at all the things the companies in my portfolio are doing either. But look at it this way: when you make an investment there is always an element of risk. And you can blame the US citizens to a certain extent who were unaware of how corrupt our Environment Protection Agency is and how cozy they had gotten with BP. Our president even took campaign contributions from BP. So there's blame enough to go around. But it doesn't let BP off the hook so don't come crying to me about your pensioners. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2010-06-17 09:04 |
| #3 Looks like he finally figured out who's ass to kick - British old folks. |
| Posted by: junkiron 2010-06-17 06:14 |
| #2 Tyrant and Dictator. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2010-06-17 05:40 |
| #1 So: the One has 20+ billion dollars to reward friends in Gulf States, and Brit Retirees have dog food. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2010-06-17 03:50 |