BP's Volte-Farce

Nice round trip to nowhere. Good exemple how US is sprinting while Europe is wasting very precious time yielding to the diktat of a hysterical ideological mob. Only to volte-face https://t.co/MBecUO3iE2

— #bigflip KKGB (Carlo Casio) (@INArteCarloDoss) February 7, 2023

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BP Shareholders Revolt Over CEO Pay Rise

Today's BP shareholders' meeting will be a stormy affair, as some investors are planning to vote against chief executive Bob Dudley's 20% pay rise taking his package to £14M.

Shareholders feel that the pay rise for the CEO and other executives are not appropriate given BP's job cuts and falling profits.

The BBC reports that those who have spoken out include Aberdeen Asset Management and Royal London Asset Management.

£1M Payoff

Tony Hayward, the outgoing CEO of BP, has negotiated a £1M payoff and a £10M pension pot.

As a result of the oil spill BP reported in its Q2 results a provision for $32.2BN and a loss of $17BN, the largest loss in British corporate history.

Quite why BP's all but invisible chairman, Carl-Henric Svanberg, who described the residents of the Gulf Coast as "small people" remains in situ is a mystery.

The "Can't Do" Nation - The Empire Strikes Back

Full marks to John Napier, the chairman of the insurer RSA, who wrote an open letter to President Barack Obama accusing him of being anti-British and "prejudicial and personal" in his dealings with BP.

The Times quotes the letter:

"Your comments towards BP and its CEO as reported here are coming across as somewhat prejudicial and personal. There is no doubt that BP, as a UK plc, is totally committed to do everything possible to contain the oil leak and meet all its obligations in the USA.

The existing CEO is the best person to deliver that effort and has made that personal commitment and made himself available in the USA. In your words, ‘he has taken the heat' and not hidden in his office. The real response has been total. You could argue a poor PR performance, but BP are not alone in that. There is a sense here that these attacks are being made because BP is British. If you compare the damage inflicted on the economies of the Western world by polluted securities from the irresponsible, unchecked greed and avarice of leading USA international banks, there has not been the same personalised response in or from countries beyond the US. Perhaps a case of double standards?

Deep-sea oil exploration was pushed forward as part of a USA oil security strategy, as have a number of foreign policy initiatives where we are standing shoulder to shoulder."

The President would do well to remember that BP employs far more US personnel than British, and 40% of BP's shares are held by US citizens. In the event that the President's ongoing vitriol pushes BP over the edge, there will be many US victims of its demise.

The demise of BP would send shock waves through the City of London and cause a financial crisis in the UK that would reignite the world's recent financial version of the "oil spill".

Can America really afford to start that fire again?

Oh, and by the way, re the knee jerk rantings to BP demanding that it holds back its dividend; why are these same rantings not being made towards Transco (an American company that has some part to play in all of this), which has announced that it will be paying a $1BN dividend?

As noted yesterday, what goes around comes around!

The "Can't Do" Nation

Faced with looking impotent, as a result of not mobilising any of the USA's considerable military or civilian resources to help staunch the ongoing oil spill, Barack Obama has resorted to shrill attacks on BP and the CEO of BP (Tony Hayward).

Unsurprisingly BP's share price continues to tumble, falling a further 10% today.

Doubtless it is very easy to try to pass the buck to what the US keeps claiming is a British company.

However, the States would do well to remember that the part of BP that is handling the spill is in fact American. It would also do well to remember that several other companies, including Halliburton (a US company with links to Cheney and Bush), were also involved.

What goes around comes around.

BP Falls

As BP continues to fail to plug the oil spill in the US, its share price continues to fall. It has lost approximately 30% of its value in 6 weeks.

Eric Holder, the US Attorney-General, has announced that there will be a criminal and civil investigation to be conducted by the FBI and other federal agencies.

It is likely that if/as the share price continues to fall, BP will become a takeover target. Cynics are also suggesting that its US operations, despite (or maybe because of?) a very publicly hostile US administration, will become US owned.

As the old saying goes, never miss an opportunity to use a crisis to your own ends!