BP

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BP gets leaking Gulf oil well under control

BP finally gained control over one of America’s biggest environmental catastrophes by placing a carefully fitted cap over a runaway geyser that has been gushing crude into the Gulf of Mexico since early spring. Engineers, politicians and Gulf residents will watch anxiously over the next day and a half to see if it holds.

After nearly three months and up to 184 million gallons, the accomplishment was greeted with hope, high expectations — and, in many cases along the beleaguered coastline, disbelief. But no one was declaring victory just yet.

Senate to probe BP’s role in freeing Lockerbie bomber

The  Senate Foreign Relations Committee has scheduled a July 29 hearing into last year’s release of a Libyan convicted for the 1988 bombing of an airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, and related actions by BP.

The committee said Thursday that it will ask officials of BP Plc to testify after the U.K.-based oil giant acknowledged that it had lobbied the British government in 2007 to transfer Libyan intelligence officer Abdel Basset al-Megrahi to Tripoli. The company said it was concerned that his continued imprisonment in Scotland could hurt an offshore oil drilling deal with Libya. Get the full story »

CNA parent CEO: ‘Business feels unloved’

The Obama administration is making businesses feel “unloved” and reluctant to put money to work, hampering the U.S. economic recovery, the chief executive of U.S. conglomerate Loews Corp., which owns CNA Financial among other companies, said Wednesday.

Companies are hunkering down amid uncertainty about the future cost of doing business and are further unnerved by the Obama administration’s response to the BP Plc oil spill, CEO James Tisch told Reuters in an interview. Get the full story »

BP to test new cap on leaking Gulf well

A BP official is praising the successful attachment of a new sealing cap on the ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. But he cautioned that the testing of the cap to begin Tuesday morning will determine whether the new effort can successfully shut down the well. Get the full story »

Pending leak cap, asset sale talk lift BP shares

A new cap that BP says could stop the flow of oil into the gulf. (BP/Getty Images)

BP shares continued a five-day rally Monday as the company gets closer to containing the Gulf oil spill.

The British oil giant also said it is in talks on the sale of company assets.

BP shares added $2.46, about 7.2 percent, at $36.51 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock has jumped 35 percent since bottoming out June 25.

Investors are returning to BP as the company plans to fasten a new cap that could contain the oil leaking into the sea. Analysts also said investors are heartened by reports that BP is in talks to raise money by selling some of its assets. Get the full story »

BP: Systems caught 24,395 barrels of oil Thursday

BP said Friday it is hooking up a third vessel to increase oil-capture capacity at the Gulf of Mexico spill to 53,000 barrels a day from 28,000 barrels a day.

BP spokesman Mark Proegler said that increased capture should start “in a couple of days.”

BP also said its current oil-capture systems at the leak collected or burned off 24,395 barrels of oil Thursday.

BP push for Mideast investors may be issue in U.S.

BP’s recent attempts to get Middle Eastern investors to help plug the leak in its blown-out balance sheet could cause more problems for the embattled British oil company. Increased investments in BP from the Middle East could trigger reviews in Washington, given the company’s U.S. subsidiary, BP America, which drills for oil and natural gas through government leases and sells gasoline and other products to consumers and businesses.

Scientists find oil seeping into Gulf food chain

University scientists have spotted the first indications oil is entering the Gulf seafood chain –  in crab larvae — and one expert warns the effect on fisheries could last “years, probably not a matter of months.”

Scientists with the University of Southern Mississippi and Tulane University in New Orleans have found droplets of oil in the larvae of blue and fiddler crabs sampled from Louisiana to Pensacola, Fla. The news comes as blobs of oil and tar continue to wash ashore in Mississippi in patches, with crews cleaning beaches all along the coast, and as state and federal fisheries from Louisiana to Florida are closed by the BP oil disaster. Get the full story »

BP could be ripe for takeover

From CNN | BP’s stock price has fallen far enough for the oil company to become an attractive takeover target for its biggest rivals, according to industry analysts.

BP’s stock finished at $28.88 Wednesday, a plunge of more than 50% from its close of $60.09 on April 19, the day before its leased oil rig, the Deepwater Horizon, exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers. On Thursday, shares were up more than 3%.

Fred Lucas of JPMorgan believes that investors have overdone it in dumping the stock, cheapening it to an attractive value for buyers – meaning potential parent companies, not just individual investors. Get the full story »

N.Y. Fed finds BP woes no risk to Wall St.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has been probing major financial firms’ exposure to BP Plc to ensure that if the oil giant buckles under the costs of the Gulf oil spill, it won’t put Wall Street or the global financial system at risk, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

After pouring over documents and asking banks in the last two weeks about their exposure to BP the Fed found no systemic risk and hasn’t asked firms to alter their credit relationships with BP, the sources told Reuters.

“The Fed gave banks’ exposure to BP a passing grade,” said one of the sources on condition of anonymity. Get the full story »

BP: CEO Hayward not resigning

BP was forced to defend its chief executive on Monday after Russia’s deputy PM said he expected Tony Hayward to resign soon, while a tropical storm threatened oil spill cleanup efforts in the Gulf of Mexico.

BP said Hayward remained CEO and no change was under discussion after Igor Sechin said he expected Hayward to resign and that Russian officials would be told the name of his successor in Moscow on Monday. Get the full story »

BP’s oil spill costs hit $2.65B

BP said Monday it has spent about $2.65 billion responding to the massive oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. The price tag includes “the cost of the spill response, containment, relief well drilling, grants to the Gulf states, claims paid, and federal costs,” the company said on its website.

BP shares fall; lost market value tops $100 billion

BP shares fell more than 5 percent in New York on Friday to a 14-year low as the costs rise for containing the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

If the decline holds, BP will have lost more than $100 billion in market value since a rig it operated exploded and sank in the Gulf two months ago. Get the full story »

Embattled BP CEO removed from spill oversight

BP removed Chief Executive Tony Hayward from day-to-day oversight of the Gulf oil spill crisis a day after he was pummeled by lawmakers in an appearance on Capitol Hill, the company’s chairman said Friday.

Carl-Henric Svanberg told Britain’s Sky News television that Hayward “is now handing over the operations, the daily operations to [BP Managing Director] Bob Dudley,” overshadowing news that after many setbacks BP was finally making real progress in siponing and burning off oil from the underwater gusher. Get the full story »

Moody’s cuts BP rating for 2nd time in a month

Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the senior unsecured ratings of BP PLC on Friday, the latest in a string of hits to the beleaguered oil company.