Government lawsuit hits BP shares

16/12/10 18:33 CET

corporate

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Oil giant BP’s shares fell nearly 1.4 percent on Thursday in response to a US government lawsuit over last April’s deadly oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.

Investors fretted that this could mean the cost of the oil spill will be far higher than predicted.

Legal experts think BP’s 30 billion euro estimate for the total cost could double if Washington were to get a court ruling that the company was grossly negligent.

Also named in the lawsuit were eight other firms involved in the disaster, including the world’s largest offshore rig contractor, Swiss-based Transocean, which saw its shares fall 3.4 percent.

In recent months, BP’s stock has risen over 60 percent on hopes the worst was behind the company.

However analysts pointed out that if the market believed that BP faced unlimited liabilities the sell off would have been much bigger, indeed the price of its US traded shared did not decline.

More about: BP, Oil spill

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