Source: The Guardian
After 2010's tragic Deepwater Horizon disaster, which killed eleven workers and gushed almost 4.9 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, British Petroleum's fines have exceeded $20 billion in repairs and environmental cleanup. In order to insulate the impact of these, BP has taken to selling major oil fields while building up monetary reserves. Most recently, it has sold some smaller oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico to the Plains Exploration & Production of Houston for $5.55 billion, but BP will still retain superintendence of the area. CEO Bob Dudley released a statement claiming that the newly accrued funds will help in future explorations and asset productions.
Despite Dudley's claims that the sales are on par with BP's larger goal of expansion and acquiring more oil from larger and fewer fields, it may seem from an outsider's perspective that BP is only trying to rid itself of all possible liabilities. The company is also attempting to sell its refinery in Texas City, at which a huge explosion in 2005 killed fifteen people.
While the negative qualities are easily associated with such sales, putting an evasive face on BP's reputation, correlation does not always lead to causation. Most likely, these are the first of many refineries and fields to be sold in the interest of paying off dues, clearing the hard-sells first. As stated by BP in its press release for the Gulf sales, $38 billion worth of divestments is expected in the next two years towards development and the Deepwater Horizon tragedy.
No matter what BP's motives are, its power over the oil market is quite impressive, and support is inevitable. As the fourth largest company in the world, its annual output is on average 1.2 billion barrels of oil. With alternative energy sources slow to develop, the modern world still depends on fossil fuels and companies like BP to secure the immediate future's energy.
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