6/7
2010
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A bird is mired in oil from the Deepwater Horizon on the beach at East Grand Terre Island along the Louisiana coast Thursday, June 3, 2010. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
6/6
2010
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BP buys Google, Yahoo search words to keep people away from real news on Gulf oil spill disaster
“In their most tenacious effort to control the ‘spin’ on the worst oil spill disaster in the history, BP has purchased top internet search engine words so they can re-direct people away from real news on the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe.”
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06-01-10 - Stephen Colbert - BP Spill is Destroying LA’s Albino Bayou Cobra
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A clean-up worker picks up blobs of oil in absorbent snare on Queen Bess Island at the mouth of Barataria Bay near the Gulf of Mexico in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, Friday, June 4, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
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Google Maps the oil spill
On April 20, 2010, an explosion occurred on the semi-submersible offshore drilling rig Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 rig workers and injuring 17 others. On April 24, it was found that the wellhead was damaged and was leaking oil into the Gulf. This significant spill poses a serious threat to wildlife, affecting as many as 400 species along the coastal areas of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.
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A Brown Pelican is seen on the beach at East Grand Terre Island along the Louisiana coast on Thursday, June 3, 2010. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
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A sea bird soaked in oil sits in the surf at East Grand Terre Island along the Louisiana coast Thursday, June 3, 2010. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
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Rescuers Try To Help Oil-Covered Birds
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BP fails to rule out cut in dividend
By Ed Crooks in Houston and Jeremy Lemer in Washington
Published: June 5 2010 03:00 | Last updated: June 5 2010 03:00
BP’s first priority is to put right the effects of its massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the company’s chairman warned investors yesterday, as the bid to trap oil from the leaking well recorded some initial success.
Speaking to analysts and investors to reassure them about the company’s underlying financial strength, Carl-Henric Svanberg, BP’s chairman, left open the possibility that it could reduce or withhold its dividend to meet the costs of the spill.
However, US President Barack Obama yesterday criticised BP for failing to scrap the dividend, and two US senators have called on BP to withhold the payment. The president said on his third visit to Louisiana since the oil spill that BP should not be “nickel and diming” Gulf coast residents over damage claims while spending billions in shareholder dividends.
It was revealed that BP’s efforts to fit a containment cap to the leaking Macondo well is capturing oil at a rate of perhaps 1,000 barrels per day. Official US estimates have suggested 12,000-19,000 barrels of oil per day have been escaping. BP said it hoped to raise the volume of oil being trapped during the next few days.
Mr Svanberg said the board was clear that “all resources available to the company should be applied to meeting our responsibilities” in the Gulf.
Tony Hayward, chief executive, said strong cash flow and low debt meant BP could “meet its obligations to all stakeholders”, in spite of downgrades this week from rating agencies.
He said the company had hundreds of thousands of shareholders - 40 per cent of them in the US - who “depend on BP for part of their financial security”.
However, he added that the dividend payment was a decision for the board.
Mr Svanberg said the board understood the political pressure and would decide on the issue shortly before announcing second-quarter results on July 27. BP expects that by then the costs of the spill, in terms of the initial clean-up at least, will be clearer. Analysts have calculated widely varying estimates of the likely final cost to BP, from about $5bn (£3.5bn) to about $35bn.
Mr Hayward also shrugged off personal criticism in the US. “They’ve thrown some words at me, but I’m a Brit,” he said. “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.”
