In the U.S. BP is actively drilling shales and contributing to the supply miracle.
FORBES: BP's Bob Dudley Dodges Trial Specifics In Speech To Oil Industry Faithful
Also lifting BP were the good vibes and apparent mutual agreement about BP between U.S. President Obama and U.K. Prime Minister Cameron at the G-20 summit.
The Gulf of Mexico has become an important deepwater exploration and production region and it now contributes to 27% of the total crude oil production in the U.S. BP owns the largest acreages in the Gulf and plans to resume drilling in the region to prop up its declining crude production.
FORBES: BP Headed To $55 As Gulf Spill Blame Gets Split With Contractors
This could be a huge deal for BP, and U.S. taxpayers.
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The brief (timed, not coincidentally, to help make President Obama look tough on BP going into the home stretch of the presidential race) was filed in U.S. District Court in Louisiana where BP is in the process of settling the civil damages case brought by a giant group of fishermen, hoteliers and citizens damaged by the spill.
FORBES: Justice Dept Hammers BP For Gross Negligence In Gulf Oil Spill
Theoretically those cases can only cover damages suffered by owners of the 28% of BP shares traded on U.S. exchanges.
In our litigious society, programs like the one set up by the U.S. government and BP are rare, Feinberg notes.
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Theoretically the securities cases can only cover damages suffered by owners of the 28% of BP shares traded on U.S. exchanges.
As the largest natural gas producer in North America--39% of its production is in the U.S.-- BP saw its gas production rise 41% over the past year.
If a law does get passed, though, one U.K. analyst says BP may find better value for its Gulf of Mexico assets by finding a buyer for them.
FORBES: House Committee Could Compel BP To Unload Gulf Assets To Rivals
The BP spill on the U.S. Gulf Coast was a different type of environmental disaster but conservatively was no worse than what happened in Ecuador and arguably much less impactful because it was cleaned up so quickly.
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Some analysts have suggested that the Obama administration, which is widely viewed as being anti-oil, could move so far as to require BP to jettison its U.S. assets or to slap the oil giant with a crippling fine.
In its green technologies fund (better known in Silicon Valley these days as "clean technology"), Kleiner Perkins is treading a similar path taken by global giants like General Electric and U.K. oil company BP, both of which have made investments in renewable technologies including wind and solar.
In its green technologies fund (better known in Silicon Valley these days as "clean technology"), Kleiner Perkins is treading a similar path taken by global giants like General Electric (nyse: GE - news - people ) and U.K. oil company BP (nyse: BP - news - people ), both of which have made investments in renewable technologies including wind and solar.
In the current U.S. political climate, BP could pay a high price for pleasing shareholders.
The prospect of U.S. legal action against BP produces the kind of uncertainty that investors punish companies for.
While some advised the company to remove its assets as far as possible from the U.S. judicial system, BP did the opposite.
WSJ: The Weekend Interview with Bob Dudley: Three Years After the Spill, BP Gets Bullish
In Washington, White House officials Thursday said they believe they have the legal authority to demand that BP subsidize the wages of U.S. workers idled because of the administration's moratorium on deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf.
The prospect that BP could face a ban on getting any new offshore licenses to produce oil and gas in the U.S. for a number of years could force BP to jettison its Gulf of Mexico assets to get better value for its shareholders.
FORBES: House Committee Could Compel BP To Unload Gulf Assets To Rivals
Then again, more than a few international CEOs probably would also look upon BP's travails in the U.S. as a reason not to invest in America too.
WSJ: The Weekend Interview with Bob Dudley: Three Years After the Spill, BP Gets Bullish
The U.K. government had historically echoed the BP line, until our report was published.
Justice Department just entered into the largest criminal settlement in U.S. history with the giant oil company BP.
Such a thorough house-cleaning might be the only way that Dudley will be able to convince Congress not to ban BP from ever again drilling another well in U.S. waters.
Under that law the U.S. Coast Guard has assigned responsibility to BP and Transocean, but a state-court jury, if it were allowed to hear the case, might say Halliburton is liable, too.
Many large U.K. pension funds depend on regular income from BP's dividend because in 2009 it made up 14% of total shareholder payouts on London's FTSE 100 index.
There is no oil disaster to speak of in the body of water separating the U.K. and northern and central Europe, but BP 's outgoing chief executive Tony Hayward will nevertheless come under extra pressure from lawmaker Wednesday following a report that the oil giant had not been in full compliance with safety regulations for its North Sea operations.
An unarmed Predator drone has flown over the BP plant to gather intelligence on the site, a U.S. official said Thursday.
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The BP settlement also ranks high against the biggest court verdicts in U.S. history.
When BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward signed contracts with Libya in 2007, U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair stood at his side.
Central and South America lost operating income in drilling and production, hindered by the U.S. moratorium on offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico following BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster.
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