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BP Considering Suspension of Dividends

Deputy Fife said:
Just throwing some ideas out there, but could scuttling an old decommisioned Navy vessel over the oil leak possibly plug it?

Wild idea, I know, but the focus has pretty much shifted to drilling a relief well and nothing more, which could take months.
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If it doesn't work, then you have a scuttled ship in the way when you try something else.
 
winston53660 said:
A lot of people will be screwed if they do not pay dividends. I'm talking about pensioners. The State of CT alone owns something like 4.1 million shares of BP
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So what? Buying stock thinking the dividend will never be changed is idiotic.
 
Harry Guerrilla said:
It's almost impossible for anyone to not give BP another dime.
You can't sift through oil and decide which was pumped by BP and which wasn't.
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But I can make a choice not to go to any BP Stations.
 
Kali said:
But I can make a choice not to go to any BP Stations.
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Most BP stations are most likely locally owned and operated.
 
Kali said:
But I can make a choice not to go to any BP Stations.
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You think that's going to hurt BP?

That's what's hillarious about the Leftists's reaction to all this. Everything they want to do hurts the little man. It doesn't hurt BP. You think Tony Hayward is losing sleep because Kali isn't going to a BP station? The answer to that would be hell no.
 
apdst said:
You think that's going to hurt BP?

That's what's hillarious about the Leftists's reaction to all this. Everything they want to do hurts the little man. It doesn't hurt BP. You think Tony Hayward is losing sleep because Kali isn't going to a BP station? The answer to that would be hell no.
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It will hurt them if everybody in the U.S.A stopped giving them business. Look I feel bad for the people working in there lousy gas stations but I feel even worse for what BP has done to our country.

So tell me how CAN I hurt BP without hurting others? What can consumers DO?
 
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Kali said:
It will hurt them if everybody in the U.S.A stopped giving them business. Look I feel bad for the people working in there lousy gas stations but I feel even worse for what BP has done to our country.

So tell me how CAN I hurt BP without hurting others? What can consumers DO?
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Nothing! You can't hurt BP without hurting the working class folks, first.


Are you as passionate at hurting the government for inacting the drilling moratorium, that will hurt tens of thousands of working class people?
 
Nothing. Oh well. Guess I will stick to my original plan and never set foot in another BP Station. I hope the workers of these places are on the hunt for new jobs.
 
Kali said:
Nothing. Oh well. Guess I will stick to my original plan and never set foot in another BP Station. I hope the workers of these places are on the hunt for new jobs.
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How nice!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
apdst said:
How nice!!!!!!!!!!!!
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What is nice is to live in a country where I can spend my money wherever the hell I want. I have already said I feel bad for the people working in these places but my HEART will not let me give another dime to BP. I am sorry you think I suck because of this but will get over that in a quick minute.

If the workers of these BP stations end up losing their jobs? I feel our gov. should step in and force BP to give them a nice package where they will be taken care of long enough to find a job.

You think I suck because I will no longer give BP anymore of money? That is your right. But keep in mind "I" am not the one that caused this mess and any anger you have towards someone maybe should be directed towards the source: BP.
 
NolaMan said:
Seriously? BP is going to get hammered for years to come because of this. It is purely a business decision. They are going to have huge liability bills coming down the pipe, and they need all the cash on hand they can get.
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Not really. Exxon did perfectly well after it totally screwed the pooch. BP likely has huge amounts of lines of credit just lying around. They won't have a problem paying for this. Furthermore, as the Valdez final tally shows, all BP is going to be liable for is actual damages and even then those are likely to cut down. The real entity that is shivering in its boots is BP's insurer's insurer who is going to take it in the shorts. Not a good time to be in reinsurance.
 
apdst said:
I'm not saying that BP should be on corporate welfare. Although, BP is just as too big to fail as any other outfit bailed out by the US government.
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Cute. You really have no idea what you are talking about do you? BP, unlike financial firms is nowhere even close to being too big to fail. Unlike other industries, the oil business has a sufficiently large number of large corporations, both private and publicly owned that could easily dice up competitors and take over their business without significant repercussions to the economy. BP was already being rumored to be a target of a take over. Unlike, say AIG, who had its tentacles in so many aspects of the economy which would have caused massive damage in fire sales, BP going under would just make another oil firm, such as Shell larger. Not a problem.

As far as my, "personal connection", to BP, there is none. I do, however, have a personal connection to offshore drilling. What do you do for a living?
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Considering your fail here, I doubt you even have a job. How about you show your expertise for a change rather then claim it?

BP has more rigs than any other oil company in the world, so of course they're going to have more safety violations. Do you have a clue what rates as a, "violation"?
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And you know this how? Furthermore, safety violations per rig is more important, which I suspect, you are usual are ignoring. Sure they have the most rigs....I'm going to omit that they also have the most violations per rig! :2wave:
 
Cole said:
Funny story <not>. Tried that same strategy when WorldCom was in their death spiral. Boy, did that turn out to be an expensive education.....
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I don't believe that is a valid comparison. Worldcom was an accounting fraud masquerading as a telecommunications company. Yes, it had an underlying telcom business, but its assets were grossly inflated on account of its capitalizing expenses (treating expenses as assets not reductions in income), among other things. BP has a strong underlying business that generates significant cash. Assuming the leak is ultimately plugged or stopped this summer via a relief well(s), BP should survive the GOM oil leak.

Whether U.S. policy makers act in a heavy-handed fashion that ultimately sees BP barred from drilling in U.S. waters remains to be seen. Such overreaction would not be helpful. It would signal that the U.S. is becoming a riskier place to do business. What is likely is that overall deep sea drilling-related regulations will increase, liability laws will be changed, the existing framework for responding to oil-related accidents will be modified or even replaced, and some talk (not necessarily public investment commitments) will be devoted to alternative energy.
 
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obvious Child said:
Not really. Exxon did perfectly well after it totally screwed the pooch. BP likely has huge amounts of lines of credit just lying around. They won't have a problem paying for this. Furthermore, as the Valdez final tally shows, all BP is going to be liable for is actual damages and even then those are likely to cut down. The real entity that is shivering in its boots is BP's insurer's insurer who is going to take it in the shorts. Not a good time to be in reinsurance.
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I don't think they can really be compared. The Valdez was spilled in a mostly remote area, and while it was devastating, it did not really impact (nor shut down) a multi-billion dollar industry across multiple states like the BP spill has.

Ultimately, I think BP's cost and fines will be much higher than we saw with Exxon, even after all the appeals.
 
jujuman13 said:
in effect they are actually driving BP to the wall.
Think on folks, if BP goes bust who pays for the clean up?
Who pays compensation (except they will never do that), only one entity after BP that may be capable and that is Obama and his bunch of idiots, so sorry, should have said 'Experts'.
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And, most critical one, what would you do ?
And I mean, other than insulting others.
Look up the meaning of civility.
 
Somehow I don't see how this is the fault of the investors. Why should they be punished because BP did something wrong.
 
American said:
Somehow I don't see how this is the fault of the investors. Why should they be punished because BP did something wrong.
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You seem to be advocating the elimination of risk from the market. That is simply impossible. Investors should know going in that things can go wrong, companies can fail, profits can change, dividends can be cut. If they were unaware of such factors, then they really have no business investing.
 
NolaMan said:
You seem to be advocating the elimination of risk from the market. That is simply impossible. Investors should know going in that things can go wrong, companies can fail, profits can change, dividends can be cut. If they were unaware of such factors, then they really have no business investing.
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Suspending dividends is different than a drop in share price.
 
Kali said:
It will hurt them if everybody in the U.S.A stopped giving them business. Look I feel bad for the people working in there lousy gas stations but I feel even worse for what BP has done to our country.

So tell me how CAN I hurt BP without hurting others? What can consumers DO?
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Wait a second, what is this hurt business?
We are acting no better than BP!
BP played Russian Roulette and shot itself. Our government was far too lax with the rules.
Why?
I think the fines for violations should be many fold greater,if the violations are serious..
But we must have more intelligently conceived rules in the first place.
 
American said:
Somehow I don't see how this is the fault of the investors. Why should they be punished because BP did something wrong.
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Of course they should not be punished...but, they should only invest in things they know about, things"next door", where they know the man who is responsible. The trouble is, the yields are not as great....greed takes over...
And, its their greed that should be punished.
Investing in AXA, GM, BP and most others, are crap-shoots at best. The propaganda from these big companies shields the CEOs, COOs, and other low-life...
 
American said:
Suspending dividends is different than a drop in share price.
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Suspending dividends will likely LEAD to a drop in share price, as the stock's yield is a share price determinant.
 
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