The Idiots At BP: We Don't Know Why Share Price Is Down

In a classic, “hear no evil, see no evil, speak not evil”, that BP management says it sees not reason for a 16% drop in its stock prices yesterday. The mention by Obama that BP will have to pay billion in costs for the Deepwater Horizon spill, analyst comments that it may cut it dividend, and fear of a Chapter 11 filing by the company notwithstanding.

BP notes the fall in its share price in US trading last night. The company is not aware of any reason which justifies this share price movement.

Under the current trading environment, we are generating significant additional cash flow. In addition, our gearing is currently below the bottom of our targeted range. Our asset base is strong and valuable, with more than 18bn barrels of proved reserves and 63bn barrels of resources as at the end of 2009. All of the above gives us significant capacity and flexibility in dealing with the cost of responding to the incident, the environmental remediation and the payment of legitimate claims.

That environment could change ovenight

Douglas A. McIntyre

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