BP and taxpayers

Have any of you actually looked at the financials for BP?

There is a wider concern that oil and gas is becoming a sunset industry, but it'll go for a good few years yet.

In the meantime, BP has a fantastically strong balance sheet. It could afford several hundred spills of this nature. Its share price was overvalued next to its peers, now it's taken a hammering, especially as it may not pay a dividend. So now is the time to invest in BP, actually.

I would agree with Coolfonz.

This is a rare buy opportunity for BP shares.

We need a beta dad on this thread. He has "knowledge" of the industry.

What exactly was Obama expected to do?

The US can't nationalise BP!

This isn't a time to get rid of BP it's a time to fill your boots with their shares. The reaction is way over the top.

BP won't fail...you don't understand the economics of the company or how these things work...BP is mainly owned by US banks anyway. No one is going to nationalise them (although they should be nationalised by the UK govt imo but that's another thing...)

Jesus...no one's pension is screwed this is all crazy talk.

You are talking top whack $10bn. Big deal...how much do you think a major oil field costs?

All the work at the field was overseen - as are all fields in the US Gulf - by the US mineral management service...

Why not do some reading about the company, or even bother to look at its accounts...all there on the old internet...

No-one looks good here.

BP didn't conduct appropriate safety checks, subcontracted out too much of the crucial work, and ignored some of the ones they did do.

Obama dithered (maybe he spent too much time with Gordon Brown), is incredibly weak politically as a result, and is now overcompensating by trying to destroy BP.

Whatever happens the British exchequer, not to mention countless British pensioners via their pension funds, are all screwed.

On this narrow point, the best hope for Britain is that the Republicans take back control of at least the House, and permanently take away the Senate supermajority. It might all be too late by then though.

gingercat12 - can you elaborate a bit on how you think Obama has been made to look incompetent? What do you think he/his administration should have done differently?

I can't imagine the US nationalising BP. It simply isn't a 'too big to fail' company in America.

Personally, I'd get it out of your investments. There is now talk about suspending the dividend until the oil spill/financial liabilities have been covered. The value of the stock has plummeted since the spill began, and if the (very generous) dividend is suspended, why in the world would an individual/pension fund/etc want to own it?

I think you are right to be worried about the future of the company. Personally, I don't think it can/will survive. Thoughts posted on another thread reproduced here:

I am not so sure that BP will survive this disaster. BP has lost one third of its' market value since the oil spill began.

All the figures quoted (money spent to date, and money projected) to stop the flow of oil doesn't begin to address the company's liability to the businesses/communities/individuals damaged and/or destroyed by the spill. There will be huge environmental costs, not to mention astronomical legal fees. Those figures will dwarf the money spent to stem the flow. If BP is found to be negilgent in the oil spill, the financial costs could (and probably will) crush the company.

And then there is the issue of the coming indictments/criminal charges from the US Federal government - all this results in a liability list that will go on for years, and that even BP, with its $20 billion free cash flow and $12 billion dividend to draw on cannot withstand.

yes there will be losses in pensions and dividends I expect, plus a hit on profits.

I would also be worried about pensions... There will be loads of them who've invested in oil companies as a "sure thing" lately. We should also all be worried about how much money will be lost in tax revenues from BP if they're not profitable.

This could be really, really bad news for the UK all round.

good point. I never thought about that. I thought they were fully private, are we actually liable in some way?

I am more worried about the US govt. nationalising BP's assets (even if supposedly temporarily). That would cause other companies the world over to stop investing in the USA; the US economy would tank badly as a result, and if they tank, the whole world will go down with them.