Iran will begin pumping oil this week. How much of an effect will it have on crude prices? And is BP ready to weather this or will there need to be even further reductions?
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It's all so sad. Prior to Margaret Thatcher's 1987 sale of the UK government owned BP to the public market, BP was an exceptionally competent company which was highly respected within the industry. It's slide downhill began with the appointment of Robert Horton as CEO in 1989, but it accelerated to a serious level with the ascent of John Browne to the CEO office in 1995 with his single minded ambition to become head of the world's largest oil company, in particular overtaking his arch rivals, Exxon Mobil & Royal Dutch Shell, regardless of its impact on all measures of BP's overall performance. Browne's blind side cost cutting regime directly led to the Texas City refinery and Deep Water Horizon disasters. Despite its gloomy position now, arguably the best asset inherited by BP from its 1998 Amoco acquisition, which it publicly labeled as a merger, is its capable and pragmatic current CEO, Bob Dudley. While avoiding turning the calendar back 30 years, if Dudley can rebuild BP while recapturing the pride, esprit de corps and commitment that distinguished BP's workforce then, he will stand a good chance of creating a strong, competent BP which once again becomes a force to be reckoned with within the international oil & gas industry.
It's all so sad. Prior to Margaret Thatcher's 1987 sale of the UK government owned BP to the public market, BP was an exceptionally competent company which was highly respected within the industry. It's slide downhill began with the appointment of Robert Horton as CEO in 1989, but it accelerated to a serious level with the ascent of John Browne to the CEO office in 1995 with his single minded ambition to become head of the world's largest oil company, in particular overtaking his arch rivals, Exxon Mobil & Royal Dutch Shell, regardless of its impact on all measures of BP's overall performance. Browne's blind side cost cutting regime directly led to the Texas City refinery and Deep Water Horizon disasters. Despite its gloomy position now, arguably the best asset inherited by BP from its 1998 Amoco acquisition, which it publicly labeled as a merger, is its capable and pragmatic current CEO, Bob Dudley. While avoiding turning the calendar back 30 years, if Dudley can rebuild BP while recapturing the pride, esprit de corps and commitment that distinguished BP's workforce then, he will stand a good chance of creating a strong, competent BP which once again becomes a force to be reckoned with within the international oil & gas industry.
Yup, assets sold off and only a shell called BP GoM will be left holding the bag for the almost $20 billion they have to pay to the govt for the Deepwater Horizon incident. I imagine they will then take that bankrupt and leave it at that. Really quite ingenious, no wonder they didn't bother fighting the settlement.
That doesn't seem likely. What are basing this speculation on?
BP is toast. Assets (without BP employees) will be sold off to a more capable oil operator in the future at bargain price.
It will happen.