ANALYST VIEWS: WILL THE GULF SPILL COST LESS THAN $20BN?
ALEXANDRE ANDLAUER | ALPHAVILLE
I believe that costs would hardly reach $20bn, even I integrated this amount in my model to be conservative on such events ?– $15bn could be more realistic. The Obama government will probably use this disaster to give a strong signal to other oil majors.
MARK PRIEST | ETX CAPITAL
The $20bn figure for the total costs is realistic but whether BP will take responsibility for all of that is a different story. It does seem to be sharing the blame and if it can share the blame then perhaps it will try to share the costs.
GEORGE GODBER | CHARLES STANLEY
As it stands, BP’s estimates are realistic based on what it has already spent. However, we are still a long way off any certainty on the financial impact because we still don’t know whether there will be any criminal charges related to the spill.