TUESDAY, JUNE 1, 2010
BP's recent oil spill disaster could prove more costly than even a large oil company can handle. Everyday that passes the amounts are ballooning. Clean up, fixing the pipe, fines, lawsuits and insurance cost are mounting.
Federal regulation says they can be fined $1,000 per barrel if found not negligent and $4,300 per barrel if negligent behavior. With an estimated 20,000 to 120,000 barrel per day, they are now on day 42 with no end in site. That is an estimated range of fines from $840 million to $21.6 billion if they cap it today.
Analyst have also estimated that the insurance cost could range from $3.5 billion to $12 billion. This will make their cost of insurance next year sky rocket, especially since they already have had previous claims in Houston and elsewhere.
Lawsuits from fisherman and tourism industries have estimated to be around $4 billion. This doesn't include the lawsuit from the family members of the people who died or were injured.
Their stock has lost 33% already. This amounts to around $62.7 billion. This could grow depending on how long this continues.
The cost of clean up and fixing the leak has reached $1billion.
The cost could range anywhere from $71 billion to $101 billion if the leak was stopped today. However, the leak is not projected to be fixed for another 4 to 12 weeks. The foreseeable future for BP is uncertain. A possible corporate take over could happen.
Posted 1:10 PM