The three BPs: British Petroleum, Bolshoi Petroleum and British pensioners

The great economic oil leak gets worse – only the small people can plug it

Goodness gracious, news on the economy seems to be gushing forth faster than oil into the Gulf of Mexico. There is only one thing that seems able to match the sheer volume of gas gushing forth from the world’s media on the economy, and that’s the hot air being emitted...Read More

BP Greece and Spain see woe grow, but markets celebrate

It’s been another busy few days packed with developments: from BP’s ever growing bill which is making the firm look increasingly like one of those banks which made short term profits and long term errors on a catastrophic scale, to news that seems to point to falling house prices in...Read More

BP – the bill rises and rises

Has it struck anyone as odd? For 18 months now, governments have been saving companies from themselves. Banks messed up in about as big a way as you could imagine, and got rescued. Car makers – especially the Detroit Three (GM, Ford and Chrysler) – went through money faster than...Read More

PetroChina prepares for swoop on BP

According to a story from Reuters, BP could soon become a subsidiary of the Chinese oil company PetroChina.

If the merger goes ahead, the resulting company’s oil and gas reserves would dwarf reserves at Exxon Mobil.

Reuters bases its piece on a note from Standard Chartered which said: “With widespread media speculation...Read More

BP: British and US media clash

Well, it was inevitable, but all of a sudden the British media have woken up to the reality that all this anti BP stuff is bad news for Britain.

Swimming against the tide of public opinion is impossible. It is an unpredictable tide at that, and seemingly sometimes it can take...Read More

BP's boss punished for 'get my life' jibe

It wasn’t exactly a tactful comment. While suffering a grilling from reporters in Louisiana this weekend, BP supremo Tony Hayward said: “There’s no one who wants this over more than I do. You know, I’d like my life back.” Oh dear, that one didn’t go down at all well. What...Read More

BP has the 'smell of death' says analyst

There’s a whiff all right, but what exactly is that smell?

There are lots of theories. The obvious one is that BP cut costs, and therefore deserves the criminal investigation coming its way. Others argue that BP is a victim of an Obama anti British agenda; still others that it’s a...Read More

Can BP afford oil disaster?

Nothing lasts for ever. Did you know, of the world’s 100 largest companies in 1912, by 1995, 29 had gone bust; 48 had disappeared; and just 19 were still counted in the top 100. One assumes that today, in this post credit crunch era, the number of survivors is even...Read More

BP thunders into deep waters

BP has made its move. The critics have lined up already. It’s a gamble all right, but then contrary to the views espoused by some of the media, you don’t win anything worth having without risk. BP has bought itself a big slice of an oil opportunity in Brazil and...Read More