British Petroleum Market Value Down 40 Percent Since Start Of Oil Spill Crisis
The market is beginning to speak when it comes to British Petroleum:
As BP hacked away at a pipe gushing oil at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, investors sawed off 15 percent, or $21.1 billion, of the company’s market value Tuesday.
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., during a trip to the Gulf Coast, announced that the Justice Department had launched criminal and civil investigations, adding to pessimism among BP investors reeling from the failed attempt to plug the leaking well over the weekend.
BP, the world’s fourth-largest company before the April 20 blowout on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, has lost a staggering $74.4 billion, or 40 percent, of its market value in six weeks.
While BP remains a huge company with vast resources, this is arguably only the beginning of the financial and legal hits that the company is likely to be taking for years to come.
Legal hits? Perhaps. If the legal history of the exxon-valdez spill is any indication though, financial hits coming from legal action will be quite small.