Oil spill's blow to BP's image may eclipse cost:
BP says that the offshore drilling accident that is spewing thousands of barrels of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico could cost the company several hundred million dollars.
Nobody really knows whether the London-based oil giant is being too conservative about the cost for the April 20 accident, which some experts say could end up as the biggest oil spill in history. The 1989 grounding of the Exxon Valdez off Alaska, for example, cost Exxon Mobil more than $4.3 billion, including compensatory payments, cleanup costs, settlements and fines....
The cost of an environmental cleanup will depend largely on how much oil reaches shore. The government could assess fines or other penalties. And lawyers have already filed a flurry of suits on behalf of commercial fisherman, shrimpers and injured oil workers against BP; Transocean; Cameron, the company that manufactured the blowout preventer; and other companies involved in the drilling process.
As Tim suggested yesterday, this sounds like Exxon Valdez redux.
