BP Oil Spill Cost Climbs To $3.5 Billion

LONDON (Associated Press) - BP PLC said Monday that the cost of dealing with the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has risen to $3.5 billion, though its shares rallied on reports it may sell some assets.

The oil company said the overall cost includes nearly $165 million paid to settle individual claims. BP said that by Saturday, it had received 105,000 claims and made more than 52,000 payments.

The company says it is still too early to estimate the final total of costs and compensation.

BP shares, meanwhile, continued their recent rally, climbing 5.5 percent higher to 384.7 pence ($5.76) in early trading on the London Stock Exchange.

BP stock, which was trading at 655 pence before the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform disaster on April 20, had briefly fallen below 300 pence last month.

Over the weekend, The Sunday Times in London reported that BP was talking with Apache Corp. about selling 12 billion pounds ($18 billion) in assets including a stake in Alaska's Prudhoe Bay field. The Sunday Times also reported that ExxonMobil Corp. had approached U.S. government officials asking if they would object to a takeover bid for BP. None of the companies would comment on the reports.

"We continue to see good near-term upside in the shares, most particularly if the first relief well is successful in capping the Macondo well," Collins Stewart analyst Gordon Gray said Monday in a research note.

BP reports its second quarter results on July 27, a date which some commentators have suggested as a deadline for announcing significant steps toward dealing with the costs of the Gulf of Mexico disaster.

Gray believes BP may come through the second quarter with no significant change in net debt, particularly as the company has canceled dividend payments for the rest of the year in response to pressure from U.S. President Barack Obama.

Comments

[mrJJ]

09:53 AM on 07/13/2010

Bobby Jindal's $350 Million Dollar Boondoggle... a Failure...

Chandeleur sand berm segment shrinking like a wool sweater in hot water!

If a single picture is worth 1,000 words this 3-picture 378-word post is short on verbiage but long on information.

Regular readers of LaCoastPost know that I have long been challenging the wisdom and effectiveness of constructing artificial sand berms for the specific purpose of intercepting intruding oil. I’m far from alone in this controversy and all the scientists with whom I have spoken share my concerns. For example, see the article by Amy Wold in the July 11 The Advocate, which describes the decision to build the sand berms as driven more by politics than science.

more: http://lacoastpost.com/blog/?p=25001

Gulf's Artificial Islands Already Failing

http://news.discovery.com/earth/gulfs-artificial-islands-already-failing.html

[BrianJDonovan]

07:07 PM on 07/12/2010

For a clear understanding of BP's strategy to limit its liability in regard to the Deepwater Horizon blowout, visit:

http://renergie.wordpress.com/2010/07/12/bps-strategy-to-limit-liability-in-regard-to-its-gulf-oil-gusher/

[JoeLeland]

03:53 PM on 07/12/2010

Coastal Sheriffs have the right to issue arrest warrants for British Petroleum officials and should do so ! Why the coastal Sheriffs have not done so thus far is anyone's guess.

[leftpinkie]

11:58 AM on 07/12/2010

We need a reliable and trusted third party to audit these accounts, since there's a good chance the amount is over-inflated. Why should we take BP's word on how much they have spent, especially when they also claimed to have had a plan for this spill!

[droog1]

12:56 PM on 07/12/2010

Why would they lie about how much it's costing them? It only hurts their share price the more they spend.

[SangZe]

11:18 AM on 07/12/2010

A sad report for the taxpayer who will bail BP out with Obama's blessing.

[spud62]

01:20 PM on 07/13/2010

That's Bull Spit!

[southernman]

10:53 AM on 07/12/2010

and

[cambo]

10:31 AM on 07/12/2010

Bad Practices should be out of business.

[Core-Sample]

10:09 AM on 07/12/2010

Awe, poor BP. That only leaves 10.5 billion left from your profits last year (that you made off of us anyway). Bi**hes.

[headly66]

09:49 AM on 07/12/2010

Glad the President got that 20 billion.

[maxfax]

10:03 AM on 07/12/2010

Not yet, the committment is $5B per year, and it's only a promise.

[Overtone]

09:35 AM on 07/12/2010

The current cost estimates may only be a down payment.

See What to Do at http://www.aesopinstitute.org The subtitle is now: Can the Gulf Gusher Threaten Human Survival?

400 parts per million of carbon has recently been found to be the Arctic Tipping Point, which could conceivably endanger all of humanity. We are presently approaching 390 ppm. The safe limit is 350 ppm. See www.350.org

A very thin film on the surface of the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans threatens to raise temperatures toward the catastrophic Tipping Point.

A massive mobilization is needed to combat what might be looming.

Capping the well may be only part of the problem. Substantial oil may be coming from fissures in the sea floor. Dealing with those leaks may be a huge problem. BP and others might be covering up that possibility.

Little known and hard to fathom breakthroughs involving radically new energy technologies appear capable of helping to supersede oil much more rapidly than might be readily understood or believed.

See Moving Beyond Oil on the same Aesop Institute website.

Cars and trucks could begin to cost-competitively leave behind gasoline and oil.

We need far more robust and sensible steps to massively attack the problems in the Gulf and prevent as much oil as possible from reaching the Atlantic ocean.

Sustainability and independence from oil is possible. Making it happen rapidly enough may require more vigorous efforts than ware needed to respond to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

[BubbaC33]

09:05 AM on 07/12/2010

The scary aspect of the Gulf oil spill is BP just happened to be the company with a well that is gushing oil into the pristine waters of the Gulf of Mexico. It could have been any of the wells operating in the Gulf by a number of oil companies. This does not free BP from responsibility for the ddestruction of the environment and lifestyles of the people depending on the Gulf. It simply means this accident is likely to be repeated by another well in the Gulf owned by a different company. The danger of these wells, is the oil companies have no idea or plan how to stop the oil or how to clean the resulting spill.

[Code For Food]

08:18 AM on 07/12/2010

BP's bean counters neglect to mention that it's not actually costing them 3.5 billion dollars. It's costing their investors 3.5 billion dollars, and ultimately will cost the general consumer that amount. BP's employees are losing nothing for ignoring the safety of their workers and the environment, while pre-accident, they were paid bonus after bonus for their profit heavy short-sighted and risky business methods.

[Vindictive]

08:08 AM on 07/12/2010

I'm not sure why people keep throwing out a dollar value on the cost of the spill. There isn't one.

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/07/you-are-not-authorized-to-see-these.html

Bet all the smoke from burning oil makes for some really pretty sunsets... I can see the Mastercard add now...

Price of BP's efforts to clean up their mess $3.5 billion dollars
Bill from EPA to BP for violating the clean water act at $4300 per barrel.... $86 billion dollars
Watching a beautiful sunset over a shimmering Gulf of Mexico... Priceless.

[TParrish]

07:46 AM on 07/12/2010

Excuse me while I take a nanosecond to feel bad about how much this is costing BP. OK, I'm done. Hmm, that took considerably less than a nanosecond.

[nationalhealth]

07:40 AM on 07/12/2010

I wonder if the new cap is in place and the crude is no longer flowing into the Gulf unabated.

Nothing on HP this morning.