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Posted in BP British Petroleum,Deepwater Horizon,Environment,Government,Gulf Coast on June 16, 2010
WASHINGTON, DC – President Obama met with BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg, CEO Tony Hayward, and other officials in the West Wing of The White House Wednesday morning. The meeting comes the morning after Obama vowed to an angry nation that “we will make BP pay for the damage their company has caused.” BP is the majority owner of the deep water well that blew out on April 20, killing 11 rig workers and triggering the spill.
President Barack Obama met with top BP officials in The West Wing on Wednesday, June 16, 2010.
President Barack Obama and BP reached an agreement Wednesday on a $20 billion fund to compensate victims of the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and the giant British company’s chairman apologized to America for the worst environmental accident in the nation’s history.
In a statement released by The White House, BP has agreed to contribute $20 billion over a four-year period at a rate of $5 billion per year, including $5 billion within 2010. BP will provide assurance for these commitments by setting aside $20 billion in U.S. assets.
US President Barack Obama June 16, 2010. PHOTO: Reuters
Obama announced the agreement after a four-hour meeting with BP officials. He also said the company had agreed to set up a separate $100 million fund to compensate oil rig workers laid off as a result of his six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling.
“The structure we are establishing today is an important step toward making the people of the Gulf Coast whole again, but it will not turn things around overnight,” Obama said. He said the vulnerable fishermen, restaurant workers and other people of the Gulf “are uppermost in the minds of all concerned. That’s who we’re doing this work for.”
Likewise, Svanberg, speaking for a company that has been assailed from every corner for the past two months, said, “I hear comments sometimes that large oil companies are — are greedy companies or don’t care, but that is not the case in BP. We care about the small people.”
According to Reuters, BP said it would cut three quarters of dividends, significantly reduce its investment program and sell $10 billion of assets to fund a planned $20 billion fund to pay for its Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Investors had expected the suspension of BP’s dividend, or payment in shares for a couple of quarters and had not expected BP to be forced to sell assets and cut investment — moves that will curb BP’s growth going forward.
The decisions to cut investment and sell assets come despite the fact BP is only committed to putting $5 billion this year into the new fund, which will be administered by a body independent from BP.
The independent fund will be led by lawyer Kenneth Feinberg, who oversaw payments to families of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Sources:
Yahoo
Huffington Post