Oil spill costs BP £50bn in value as shares drop again
BP shares dropped another 5% today, taking the loss in the oil giant's market value to £50 billion since the start of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill crisis.
The shares fell 19.1p to 390p — the lowest level since October 2008 — to value the firm at £73 billion.
The company has now lost 40% of its value, or a staggering £50 billion, since the blast on the Deepwater Horizon rig on April 20 killed 11 workers and caused the worst oil leak in US history.
The grim milestone was reached as politicians in the US continued to whip up an anti-BP and anti-British frenzy by demanding that the company suspend dividend payments until the oil spill is cleaned up.
The BP dividend is a vital source of income for UK pension funds and last year made up 14% of payouts from FTSE 100 companies.
In a letter to BP chief executive Tony Hayward, 42 members of the US Congress said: "We urge you to halt your planned dividend payout until you have done the hard work of capping the well, cleaning up the Gulf Coast and making whole those whose very livelihoods are threatened by this catastrophe.
"Not a moment before then should you return to business as usual."
It came just hours after US President Barack Obama said Hayward should be sacked as head of "British Petroleum" for his handling of the crisis.
Oil analyst Peter Hitchens, of Panmure Gordon, said: "They're getting a lot of flak from politicians and that's raising concerns about the dividend.
"Operationally, they seem to have turned the corner."
BP has collected 60,850 barrels of oil from the leaking well since a containment cap was put in position last week. Scientists reckon as much as 19,000 barrels of oil, or 800,000 gallons, are gushing into the Gulf every day.
