bp oil spill update

BP is apparently considering the $1 billion sale of some of its assets in the North Sea as it tries to cover cleanup costs from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The company's Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico exploded in April, leading to the most massive oil spill in U.S. history.

The Obama administration will temporarily ban the sale of new offshore oil drilling leases in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and off the Atlantic coast, Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar said Wednesday, a policy change made in response to lessons learned from BP's horrific Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Earlier Friday in London trading, shares of BP gained on rumors the largest oil company in the world, Exxon Mobil, is considering a bid for the oil company responsible for the largest oil spill in the U.S., Reuters reported.

Oil services firm Halliburton (HAL) has responded to claims that it was aware of test results showing that the cement to be used as a plug for the bottom of the Macondo oil well was unstable. Federal investigators sent a letter Thursday indicating that only one of the four tests Halliburton...

BP (BP) named the U.S. oil assets that will help finance its $20 billion compensation fund for victims of the Gulf oil disaster. Revenue from oil fields including Thunder Horse, Atlantis and Mad Dog will be tied to compensation payments, the oil giant said in a statement. Sponsored Links "The...

The $20 billion fund established to compensate victims of BP's Gulf oil spill has been criticized for processing claims too slowly. Kenneth Feinberg responded to those accusations Saturday, and said was implementing changes to make payments more quickly, and more generous.

BP's (BP) relief well reached intercepted the Macondo well, putting engineers in a position to permanently plug the well that spewed out millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The relief well intercepted the Macondo well late last night, Reuters reported. The next step will be to pour in cement near the bottom of the well, some 2.5 miles below the seabed.

Nearly five months since the start of the massive BP oil spill, many questions are still unanswered. More than 200 million gallons of oil were released between April and August, and now a team of marine scientists thinks they know where a large portion of the oil from the BP spill has gone.

BP said Friday that the Deepwater Horizon rig's blowout preventer, which failed to prevent oil from the Macondo well from flowing into the Gulf of Mexico, has been removed from atop the well.

BP (BP) warned that any legislation that stops it from drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico could prevent the oil giant from paying out compensation related to this year's oil spill. Congress is currently considering legislation that would bar any company from receiving offshore drilling...