The oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has damaged BP's reputation will they manage to avoid a share collapse to 350p.?



472p to buy this morning.

I've done a Fibonacci a couple days ago, and it was pointing to a move down to around to 384p for the good retracement of 38.2%.

BP has postponed plans to drill its first deep-water well in Libya's Gulf of Sirte until later in the year.
what was the reason of share price sharp fall since late yesterday?
maybe below can be a better answer ..........

From the Telegraph

Libya has made fools of us all over Lockerbie bomber Megrahi, and much else besides
Gaddafi was playing Tony Blair long before the release of the Lockerbie bomber, argues Con Coughlin.

It doesn't matter how much money BP stands to make from its deep-water exploration off the Libyan coast it is never going to compensate for the humiliation Britain has suffered over last year's decision to repatriate the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi.

Britain's leading oil company says it has postponed plans to drill its first deep-water well in Libya's Gulf of Sirte until later in the year, because of the concerns that have been raised by the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. But that is not the only reason BP is holding fire: its senior executives fear that if work commences just as Megrahi is celebrating his first year of freedom, it would further infuriate the members of the US Senate who are already demanding a full Congressional inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Megrahi's release.

US senators may quiz Mandelson in probe into BP role in Lockerbie case
Tony Blair met Colonel Gaddafi in Libya last monthThe fact of the matter is that Megrahi, according to what we were told at the time, should not be alive, and certainly not the subject of the sickening spectacle that has been arranged today by Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the Libyan dictator's son and political heir. This will see 500 teenagers, flown in from around the world at vast expense, acting as guests of honour at a ceremony to mark the one-year anniversary of Megrahi's return home from his Scottish prison cell.

Precisely what role BP played in securing Megrahi's release, or what bearing this had on its $900 million oil exploration contract, remains unclear. The company says it did no more than lobby the Scottish Parliament for a prisoner swap. But many senior officials in the Obama administration believe that BP was more deeply involved. They point to the role played by Sir Mark Allen, a former senior MI6 officer who headed the negotiations that persuaded Libya to stop work on its nuclear weapons programme, in late 2003, and wrote to the Foreign Office seeking Megrahi's release.

The lenient approach that Scottish officials adopted in dealing with Megrahi's case, in which no serious assessment appears to have been made of the terrorist's medical condition, certainly fits with the approach that Tony Blair encouraged British officials to adopt towards Libya following the nuclear deal. Colonel Muammar Gaddafi might remain one of the region's less appealing dictators, but that did not prevent Mr Blair from working tirelessly to bring him in from the diplomatic cold.

Mr Blair even went so far as to accept an official invitation to visit Tripoli just before he left Downing Street in 2007, where he hailed the "transformation" that he claimed had taken place in British-Libyan relations. It was during this visit that BP announced that it was returning to the country after a 30-year absence, caused by Gaddafi's nationalisation of the oil industry shortly after he seized power in 1969.

Yet hopes that Britain's courtship of the Libyan regime might persuade it to mend its ways, both at home and abroad, have come to little. Domestically, it remains as repressive as ever. Student protesters are no longer hanged from lamp-posts, as was the case at Benghazi University in the 1980s. But floggings are still regularly employed as a punishment for adultery, and Libya's internal security agency, which reports directly to Gaddafi, can arrest and detain anyone who dares to challenge the state's authority. Earlier this summer, Amnesty International reported that detainees are held incommunicado for long periods, tortured and denied access to lawyers. It accused Britain and other Western countries of turning a blind eye to such human rights abuses.

Nor has there been much improvement in the way the Gaddafi clan conducts itself abroad. Earlier this year, police were called to the 4,000-a-night suite at Claridge's occupied by Gaddafi's playboy son Hannibal, after an incident involving his 29-year-old wife. Two years ago, Libya threatened to cut its oil supplies to Switzerland after Hannibal was imprisoned for two days after an altercation in Geneva.

Meanwhile, Saif-al-Islam ("Sword of Islam", in Arabic) has sought to improve his claim to succeed his father by sending a Libyan cargo vessel to join the flotilla of "peace" ships attempting to break Israel's blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza strip.

As for Gaddafi Snr, there has been no let-up in the periodical outbursts that once prompted Ronald Reagan to label him "the Mad Dog of the Middle East". During a rambling speech to the United Nations General Assembly last year, he launched a blistering attack on the Security Council, which he denounced as a "terror council". In another speech, he called for Switzerland to be abolished, and its territory divided equally between its neighbours.

The more you look at the way the Gaddafi regime conducts itself, the more you realise that Britain has been the victim of a clever Libyan con-trick, which began when Gaddafi Snr succeeded in persuading Mr Blair that he was serious about rebuilding relations with the West, and culminated in the Scottish government's reprehensible decision to release Megrahi on compassionate grounds.

Alex Salmond, Scotland's First Minister, continues to insist that he made the right decision. But that is not how the rest of the world will see it when they watch the Libyans celebrate the release of their terrorist hero.

Share price sharp fall since late yesterday? ..........

Huge oil plume found in Gulf
By Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington -- Published: August 19 2010 19:06

Scientists say they have discovered a huge plume of oil below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, a remnant of the catastrophic BP spill that gushed nearly 5m barrels of oil into the sea.

It was not yet clear whether the plume, 22 miles long, more than a mile wide and 3,500ft under the sea, was a significant threat to the gulf, but its existence proved that the oil was persisting for longer periods than we would have expected, scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution , an independent marine research body, said in a report on Thursday

Even as BP prepares a final operation to kill the ruptured Macondo well which has been further delayed until next month the report in the journal Science underscores that much is still unknown about the long-term environmental implications of the spill.

It also inflamed a debate between US authorities who claim most of the oil has been cleaned up or dispersed naturally, and scientists who say such statements are premature.

Richard Camilli, WHOI scientist and report author, said research proved that the plume did not occur from natural oil seepage, but had to have emanated from the blown-out well.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is monitoring the spill, on Thursday said the mission that discovered the plume had taken place from June 19-28.

These findings confirm what NOAA and our federal partners have reported about the presence and concentration of subsurface oil, and provide an additional piece of the puzzle as we continue to monitor the fate of the oil in the gulf, said Steve Murawski, NOAAs chief scientist.

US authorities have in recent weeks reported that oil had become difficult to find on the seas surface an indication that either the clean-up had been remarkably successful or that the oil could no longer be detected easily.

On Thursday, Mr Camillis team said some oil was trapped under the sea. The researchers detected a class of petroleum hydrocarbons at concentrations of more than 50 micrograms per litre. The samples had no odour of oil and were clear.

The plume was not a river of Hersheys syrup. But thats not to say it isnt harmful, said Christopher Reddy, another author of the study.

Contrary to previous assumptions by scientists, the WHOI team found no so-called dead zones, or regions with oxygen depletion where little marine life could exist. The report found that of dozens of samples taken, only a few measured below expected levels of oxygen, and that those were only slightly depleted.

If the oxygen data from the plume layer are telling us it isnt being rapidly consumed by microbes near the well, the hydrocarbons could persist for some time. So it is possible oil could be transported considerable distances from the well before being degraded, said Benjamin Van Mooy, another WHOI investigator.

US authorities claim about one-quarter of the spill was burnt, skimmed or recovered from the well. Another 25 per cent evaporated or dissolved and 24 per cent dispersed as microscopic droplets into gulf waters. The remaining 26 per cent was at or near the ocean surface or was buried in the sand and sediment.

Heading back to 350p.

vile innit, along with the rest of the market

entry at 325p would be nice.

Another early morning shake-out.

Aug. 29 - 2010(Bloomberg

BP Plc s internal investigation of the Deepwater Horizon rig disaster found company engineers misinterpreted pressure data that indicated a blowout was imminent, according to a person familiar with the report.

BP managers aboard the Transocean Ltd .-owned rig misread a test of the Macondo wells stability on April 20 and began replacing drilling fluid, which is heavier than oil and natural gas, with seawater, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the reports findings havent been publicly released.

The seawater was too light to prevent natural gas that had begun leaking into the well from shooting up the pipe to the rig, where it exploded and killed 11 workers. The damaged well eventually spewed more than 4 million barrels of crude into the sea, enough to fill two supertankers.

BP intends to announce the findings of their internal probe in the next 10 days, the person said. Scott Dean , a U.S.-based spokesman for BP, didnt return messages left after regular business hours on his office and cellular phones.

The 200-page report was compiled by a team of BP investigators led by Mark Bly, the London-based companys head of safety and operations. The report concluded BP bears at least partial responsibility for the incident that led to the largest oil spill in U.S. history, the person said. Blys team also found that Transocean shares the blame, the person said.

Blys team began conducting interviews and reviewing internal documents just days after the Macondo well erupted about 40 miles (64 kilometers) off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico.

375p -4.30p

WTI Crude Oil down -1.54% @ $73.55

Climbing nicely back up.

Moving forward over the last couple of days and hopefully make 4 before long.

Looking like Divi's starting again in the New Year...should crank the sp up over the coming months.

4.50 getting close :-)

ADR's finished nicely up last night so hopefully the Yanks will keep buying today, when NY opens, and may get close to 4.50 here by knockoff.

Could do with Wall Street having a good day and turning the LSE a bit more Blue!

Results due tomorrow.

Favourable reaction from the market so far this morning, with the results:-)

4.50 looking like it will be reached/passed today...providing the Yanks play Ball this Afternoon.

4.50 breached and now to see if it will hold till the close:-)