AT A GLANCE: BP Executives To Meet With Obama Administration

16th Jun 2010 15:40

THE NEWS BP PLC (BP, BP.LN) Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg, Chief Executive Tony Hayward and other company executives planned to meet with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden at 10:15 a.m. EDT at the White House. Obama made his first Oval Office address Tuesday since taking office almost a year and a half ago, saying BP "must set aside whatever resources are required" to fund the cleanup of the Gulf of Mexico. BP said it is collecting oil and gas from a second containment system attached to the Macondo well's failed blowout preventer, potentially allowing for greater collection of oil. THE DETAILS As the massive offshore oil spill continues to gush, BP executives and the Obama administration plan to discuss issues such as suspension of BP's dividend and creation of a fund to help victims. The meeting also represents Svanberg's increasingly public presence in the crisis. As BP entered direct engagement with the government, Svanberg has spoken with U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron and appeared on U.K. television. OBAMA'S SPEECH In his Oval Office speech, Obama promised to restore the Gulf area not only to pre-April 20 levels, when the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, but to a state reversing decades of declines. Obama said that the gusher was coming under control and that BP would be capturing 90% of the flow "in the coming days and weeks" even as the government raised its estimate of the amount of oil spilling. Obama named a lawyer to lead the reorganization of the Minerals Management Service, the government agency whose lax oversight is in part blamed for the BP disaster. The president also called for legislation to end U.S. dependence on fossil fuels. Republicans reacted by accusing Obama of exploiting the crisis to push an unwanted energy policy. BP'S SECOND SYSTEM BP said oil and gas from the second system reached a vessel on the surface early Wednesday, though it didn't provide a figure on the volume of oil and gas passing through the new system. Scientists monitoring the damaged BP offshore well Tuesday raised their estimate of the amount of oil spilling into the Gulf to a range of to 35,000 to 60,000 barrels a day from 20,000 to 40,000 barrels a day. MARKET REACTION BP's stock price fell in Europe and the U.S. The company's American depositary shares recently declined 4.6% to $29.94 in the U.S., but BP was off only 0.5% in Europe. The cost of insuring debt issued by BP reached an all-time high. BP's credit-default swaps were 605 basis points as of 9:28 a.m. EDT, according to Markit, meaning it now costs an average of $605,000 a year to insure $10 million of debt issued by the company. CDS are tradable, over-the-counter derivatives that function like a default insurance contract for corporate debt. The cost of CDS is rising for BP partners Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC) and Transocean Ltd. (RIG). Anadarko's CDS recently traded at 706 basis points, 20 basis points wider than Tuesday's close; Transocean's CDS was 30 basis points wider at 649. Crude oil prices dropped as much as 44 cents to $76.50 a barrel, adding to the gloom, on expectations of a weak summer driving season. DOW JONES COVERAGE For more coverage of the oil spill, please search under the code BP. =BP Executives Arrive At White House For Talks With Obama =UPDATE:BP Unlikely To Have To Sell Assets To Fund Spill-Fitch =UPDATE: BP Must Be Given "Certainty" On Liabilities - UK PM =BP: Second Containment System Begins Operation =Europe Shrugs Off BofA Ban On Long-Term Trade With BP =Obama Aide: Govt To Use Every Device To Make BP Pay For Cleanup -0- (MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires June 16, 2010 10:40 ET (14:40 GMT)