Shares of BP (BP) have broken down today, after CEO Tony Hayward conceded the firm was caught off guard by the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico, and President Obama met with cabinet members to consider further action that could be taken to contain the spill.
Hayward told journalists Wednesday night in Houston, Texas, that it was “probably true” that the firm “should have done more to prepare for such an emergency, according to the write-up this morning by Guy Chazan and Jim Carlton of the Wall Street Journal.
The Huffington Post notes the latest containment efforts, trying to move a tube into the leaking riser, to siphon the oil away, come as estimates have crept up for the pace of the spill.
A Purdue University researcher, analyzing underwater footage, tells NPR that he thinks the pace of the spill is 70,000 barrels per day, more than ten times the 5,000 cited by BP. and The New York Times’s Justin Gillisyesterday cited a Florida State Univeristy research tema that says the rate of spill could be at least four or five times the 5,000 figure.
BP shares today are down $1.64, or 3.4%, at $46.46, continuing their prior four days’ march downward. The shares are off 23% since April 20, a loss of $44 billion. Whew.
Transocean (RIG), meantime, the owner of the Deepwater Horizon, is off $1.57, or 2.4%, at $65.12. Halliburton (HAL), which provided contract services in setting up and maintaining the rig, is off 90 cents, or 3%, at $28.11.
And Cameron International (CAM), which made the blowout preventer that may or may not have failed to prevent the blast, is down $1.10, or 3%, at $37, which is significant for a stock that had held up relatively well during most of this.
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