Regarding the BP boycott- if they go bankrupt...

[apples and oranges]

won't we be stuck with the entire bill?

:shrug:

[YOY]

1. Whoever buys their properties will.

And yes...someone will buy all those rigs still working...and distribution chain already set up.

Happened to the corpse of Union Carbide.

[Statistical]

6. Not necessarily.

Liabilities routinely get spun off in bankruptcy court.

Just ask GM creditors. Old GM dies -> new GM emerges and creditors claim is left w/ old GM (which is nearly worthless).

New GM has plenty of cash & assets but the creditors claim is with "Old GM" and they will be lucky to get $0.02 on the dollar when all is said and done.

That being said BP isn't going bankrupt. Maybe BP gets out of the RETAIL portion of business in the US but they aren't going bankrupt.

Retail operations aren't necessary to sell oil. Ever seen a Saudi Arabian gas station? Where did the 369 million barrels of oil we imported from them last year end up?

[BeFree]

Where did all that Saudi oil go?

Probably into the US military's consumption.

BP was just the middleman?

[Statistical]

11. No the Saudi oil went same place as all the other oil.

Into US pipeline & refinery network.

There is Saudi oil in every gallon of gasoline you buy from a BP, Exxon, Shell, Marathon, Chevron, Costco, Farm Fresh, Sams Club, Raceway, etc gas station.

[BeFree]

16. Really?

Did Saudi crude come to the US, get refined, then shipped back to Iraq?

[BeFree]

31. Hello!! Anybody home?

I'd really like an answer.

[YOY]

26. Due to the public nature of it...especially that it happened here it might not.

It would cause a large amount of outrage. Or at least I see it that way. Then again we only know what the media tells us...and corporate legal rulings are so "boring" that a white girl might get kidnapped and no one would pay attention at all to the matter.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

10. Depends how it is done

More that once a company has been broken up and sold and the debts it owes remain with whats left of the company.

[JuniperLea]

2. We were going to have to foot this bill from day one...

Regardless. They had no intention of doing the right thing.

[BeFree]

14. BP will go bankrupt. Boycott has great meaning.

Some will say BP is to big to fail.

That it can profit from it's criminal business practices and thrive.

But what will happen is that BP will be carved up into little pieces and the only thing
left of the BP we know today will be a textbook history lesson on how not to do business.

[Statistical]

3. BP won't go bankrupt. Boycott is meaningless.

BP won't reduce the amount of oil they sell by 1%.

If BP doesn't sell oil products (gasoline) at BP stations in the US they will sell them at unbranded stations (7-11, mom & pops, raceway, Costco, etc).

BP simply produces x billion barrels of oil a year and it all gets bought. Doesn't matter where it goes.

I mean say nobody ever buys BP gasoline again until end of time. BP oil will simply make up a large share of oil that makes plastic bags for example. Or pesticides. Or those annoying packages you can never get open.

[flamingdem]

4. Plus the US Army purchases 80% of its oil from BP so.. nt

[RKP5637]

7. Yep, quite correct IMO. n/t

[HughMoran]

28. I can always count on you as a voice of logic and reason

:hi:

[Critters2]

5. Saw Keith talk about this last night.

It isn't a given that a court will allow BP to declare bankruptcy. If a debtor has debts that the court believes they can and should pay, the court can deny the bankruptcy claim. Keith seemed to think that would happen in this case.

[blindpig]

9. Depends where the courthouse is....

Oughta be New Orleans to have a chance, if it's in Houston, forget about it.

[dipsydoodle]

17. BP could

have itself put into receivership in the UK where it is registered. In fact that is probably the only place in which it could be done. That would allow the company to continue to trade while the debts were adminsitered by the receivers. That would also be the closest equivalent of the US's Chapter 11 which doesn't exist in the UK - I don't believe your courts could actually do anything on this subject outside of taking control of BP's US assets possibly. Its all an unlikely event though.

As I've said before - its actually in the interest of the USA, like it or not, for BP to continue to trade in its normal manner as its their future profits which will be needed in addition to their current reserves to help sort the Gulf tragedy.

BP bears 65% responsibilty by virtue of ownership and its equally unlikely that anything would be done without affecting the other two parties as well : Anadarko Petroleum and Japan Mitsui.

[Ozymanithrax]

8. Each brand of gasoline does not have its own refinery.

An oil tanker from Exon, BP, or anyone else goes to a refinery and everyones gas comes out. The BP gas stations is just a marketing ploy. If you use gas, you are paying BP. It doesn't matter what station you go to.

We live in a petrochemical civilization. BP is one of the chief suppliers of the blood that keeps our civilization alive. Hell, they make more money than many nations.

If the boycott makes people feel good, like they are doing something, then it has a purpose. It won't hurt BP.

[RKP5637]

19. I recall years ago at the docks when oil was off loaded to various tanker

trucks brands sometimes got mixed depending on supply to meet the needs. So brand X might end up being brand Y.

[Ozymanithrax]

24. Some brands have additives, and those additives are added...

in the truck when they pick up.

[RKP5637]

25. Yep!!! n/t

[RKP5637]

12. The people in the Gulf area are going to sadly end up screwed for years. None can compensate

them for the depth of the loses they are/will sustain, and how does one even attempt to calculate, for example, the loss of generational businesses. Given a couple of years or so and it will be out of sight, out of mind and another crisis will take priority. Many horrific stories will go unheard and individuals uncompensated.

[NNN0LHI]

13. Halliburton has some deep pockets

We go after them next.

Don

[OHdem10]

15. Get ready taxpayers to foot the bill. The answer is if BP goes

belly up, we will be stuck.

Whether we want to admit it or not, Business rules this
country. We do not have leaders who are willing to cross them.
After all most of our Leaders are beholden to them.
All the tough talk in the world by either party will
not change things. Perfect example: Financial Reform
is watered down in order to meet the needs and wishes
of Wall Street. Likewise, in the end BP will do what
it is willing to do and no more. Yipping and yelling
solves nothing. Situations are what they are.

In other words things are going to have to get pretty
bad in this country for people in the "comfortable class"
before any real change in the political system takes place

[blueworld]

18. Forgive me, but it's im-freakin-possible for an oil giant to really go bankrupt

They'll rearrange their assets, hide money, exaggerate expenses, sell off divisions & continue drilling/spilling off the coasts of third-world-countries.

This is ridiculous propaganda. We need to worry about the entire U.S. going bankrupt. The Gulf States are some of the poorest in the nation. Mississippi has river traffic & poultry-packing. LA is still recovering, Alabama who the freak knows...all of them rely heavily on tourism & fishing.

The beaches are closing, the water is slimy, the fishing is verboten. The people are gradually becoming unemployed, the dockside warehouses are shut. The truckers who transported all the seafood are sitting idle. The hotels & stores & souvenier shops...it won't even start hurting for real until next year.

The states can't afford to subsidize the people & clean-up so they'll go to the Feds, which ultimately is us. We're scrood for years regardless. BP will fight in court until our grandchildren have grandchildren. The environmental devastation requires several chapters. But I promise you BP will sail on in one form or another, and Tony Hayward & company will be eating oysters & caviar in one of their mansions as my friends & family in the Gulf are trading seashells for coffee.

[RKP5637]

21. +1000! What you said was what I was trying to get to in #12, but you did a

far better job that I.

[Catherina]

27. +1 n/t

[Mz Pip]

20. How can they possibly go bankrupt

when they are paying out billions in dividends? I don't see it happening. The Gulf rig isn't their only drilling location and they'll get plenty of revenue from those.

They have more than enough money to fund this clean-up; they just don't want to have to. Bummer for them.

I also think TransOcean and Halliburton should be forced to contribute to this clean-up. They were part of this disaster as well.

[Hosnon]

22. Not likely. Bankruptcy doesn't necessarily mean creditors don't get paid.

In fact, bankruptcy was originally involuntary and a way for creditors to recoup what they were owed from illiquid debtors (by forcing the sale of the debtor's assets).

[freespeechtv]

23. We've got to do a lot more than boycott BP...we have to change what we buy and how we function...

...as a society. Not buying gas or even not driving isn't the whole answer. We have to stop buying every petroleum-based product made, including anything made from plastic (even sandwich bags). We also have to get more organized as consumers--we have more collective power than any multinational corporation. That's why we need to also actively protest the G8/G20 summit this month in Toronto and participate in the US Social Forum, which happens at the same time as the summit, in Detroit (http://www.ussf2010.org/).

[Abq_Sarah]

29. yet you typed that

On a computer made in part, by petroleum products.

[freespeechtv]

30. sadly yes...no non-toxic, non-petroleum based computers yet--needs to also be part of our demand

for better products to choose from! At least a good start is to recycle our old equipment. Yes? Let's grow the movement!