[It would seem only logical, that during an international economic crisis caused by greedy unscrupulous financiers and disloyal multinational American corporations, for a puppet president to order covert attacks upon foreign competitors. GM (government motors) has now pulled ahead of Toyota and has begun earning profit once again; something it seemed incapable on its own.

BP has fallen from its formerly unassailable status as world’s top oil company and may be subject to “hostile takeover.” The fact that the Deepwater Horizon explosion has been blamed on faulty sealing work on the seabed drill hole done by Halliburton (Cheney’s company) should set-off alarm bells. It is worth recalling here that Halliburton was at the center of another international/environmental catastrophe, the Kuwaiti “cross-drilling” operation that ignited the “Gulf War” and the resultant hundreds of oil well firings. (SEE: Sperry Sun) ]

“Toyota’s shares had earlier plunged as much as 18 percent over the last one week amidst the massive global recall of as many as 2.3 million units.”

“Toyota shares plunged 5.7 percent to 3,400 yen ($38) with jittery investors dumping stocks in the wake of the Prius woes in the U.S. and Japan.”

Toyota’s Fall is Speeding Out of Control

General Motors Co.’s retail sales are up 9% so far this month while rival Toyota Motor Corp.(TM ) has seen a 12% drop,

Toyota…fell to 360th from third in Forbes magazine’s annual list

Ford Motor Co. led the way with a 43 percent jump, which let it seize the monthly top spot from General Motors Co.

BP at Risk as Share Plunge Fuels Takeover Speculation

By Brian Swint and Stanley Reed

June 2 (Bloomberg) — BP Plc’s failure to stop an oil leak from spewing millions of gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico may leave the biggest oil and gas producer in the U.S. in a fight to stay independent.

BP shares have plunged 36 percent since the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig leased by the company exploded on April 20, wiping more than 40 billion pounds ($58 billion) from the company’s value. That may make BP cheap enough to attract acquisition interest, investors said.

“The market value of BP has eroded substantially, so it could be a takeover target,” said Dirk Hoozemans, who helps manage about $4.5 billion at Robeco Group in Rotterdam, which sold its BP holding last year. What matters now is how forceful BP’s Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward is in tackling the disaster and the aftermath, Hoozemans said.

With a permanent end to the leak depending on so-called relief wells that are some two months from completion, Hayward faces costs that may reach $22 billion, or more than last year’s profit, according to ING Wholesale Banking. The company also faces a criminal and civil investigation in the U.S. into the disaster.

“There is a 10 percent to 20 percent chance of BP being taken over,” said Gudmund Halle Isfeldt, an Oslo-based analyst at DnB NOR ASA, in an e-mailed this week. “The only real candidate, in size and with similar operations globally, would be Royal Dutch Shell.”

Shares Fall

BP shares fell for a third day in London today, dropping as much as 3.5 percent and trading at 416.2 pence at 9:02 a.m.

BP spokeswoman Sheila Williams declined to comment for this story. A spokesman for Royal Dutch Shell Plc in The Hague declined to comment.

In addition to being the largest oil and gas producer in the U.S., BP is the biggest operator in the Gulf of Mexico, where it holds more than 500 leases and pumps 450,000 barrels of oil a day. The company plans 10 projects in the Gulf during the next five years, more than other regions of the world, according to a BP presentation.

Some analysts estimate the potential for criminal investigation and civil lawsuits facing BP could be as high as $40 billion, which would justify the roughly $50 billion loss in market value, said Gordon Kwan, the Hong Kong-based head of regional energy research at Mirae Asset Securities Ltd.

President Obama

The U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether any criminal or civil laws were violated in the spill, Attorney General Eric Holder said yesterday.

Holder announced the investigation at a news conference in New Orleans, the same day President Barack Obama called the spill “the greatest environmental disaster of its kind in our history.”

Obama last week extended a moratorium on deep water drilling permits by six months. He has dropped plans to open waters off the coast of Virginia to drilling, canceled a lease sale in the Gulf and suspended the permit process for Shell’s planned wells off Arctic Alaska. He said new safety rules will be imposed on drilling.

BP has spent $990 million on trying to stop the gusher on the seabed about a mile below the surface and on cleaning up oil from the Gulf. Payments to landowners, hoteliers and fisherman claiming losses from the spill will cause the bill to rise.

‘The Tab Is Rising’

“The tab is rising every day,” said Fadel Gheit, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. in New York. “BP could be facing a huge liability in compensation, damages and other charges.”

The cost for the Exxon Valdez tanker disaster in 1989, previously the worst U.S. oil spill, resulting from clean-up costs, fines and settlements has reached at least $4.3 billion so far.

BP spokesman Scott Dean said in an e-mail May 19 that the London-based energy company is self-insured against losses and damage claims resulting from the spill.

Credit default swaps for BP leapt 52 basis points to a new record high of 220 basis points during early trading in London, according to CMA DataVision prices.

In a worst-case scenario, where hurricanes, technological difficulties, or unforeseen problems thwart BP’s attempts to contain the oil and seal the well, the leak could spout almost 4 million barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico by Christmas, petroleum geologists and industry analysts said.

Decades of Damage?

The oil could suffocate fish and other marine life, damage shorelines along the Gulf Coast, sweeping around to Florida’s Atlantic Coast, and harm the economies that are dependent upon fishing and marine life, according to marine scientists. Toxic crude from the spill could remain trapped in layers of ocean water for decades, scientists say.

BP pumped 3.95 million barrels of oil and gas a day last year, making it the world’s largest producer outside government- owned oil companies. Exxon Mobil, its closest rival, pumped 3.93 million barrels a day.

BP’s market value, which surpassed Shell at the start of the year, has fallen behind Petroleos Brasileiro SA, Chevron Corp., and Russia’s OAO Gazprom. Paris-based Total SA pumped 2.28 million barrels last year and is priced about $9 billion less than BP on the stock market.

“We’re getting into share price territory where analysts speculate about takeover possibilities, because the loss of market value is much greater than the estimated ‘worst case’ costs,” said Ivor Pether, who helps manage $9.2 billion at Royal London Asset Management, including BP shares. “But there aren’t any buyers at this point because the near-term uncertainty is so high.”

Debt Ratio

Hayward reduced BP’s net debt ratio to 19 percent in the first quarter from 23 percent a year earlier, giving him greater ability to meet cleanup costs and related liabilities. The company has an AA credit rating from Standard & Poor’s and made a record $6 billion profit in the first quarter on $73 billion of revenue.

“The liability could be tens of billions of dollars, but I do think BP has the balance sheet capacity to be able to handle a hit like that,” said Jason Gammel, an analyst at Macquarie Securities USA Inc. in New York. “It’s too early to say it’s a takeover candidate because no one wants to own an unquantifiable liability.”

BP is now trying to contain the spill by fitting a pipe over the leak to bring the oil to a drillship on the surface. The operation may temporarily increase the flow of oil into the Gulf before a cap can seal the pipe, BP said yesterday.

Hayward has promised to clean up “every drop” of oil in the Gulf and on the shoreline from the well that has gushed up to 19,000 barrels of oil a day, according to a government estimate. BP is drilling two relief wells to intercept the damaged well and permanently plug it, a process that won’t be completed until August.

–With assistance from Juan Pablo Spinetto, Eduard Gismatullin, Kate Haywood, Elliott Gotkine and Eric Burg in London, Yee Kai Pin in Singapore and Deirdre Bolton in New York. Editors: Will Kennedy, Jonas Bergman.

To contact the reporters on this story: Brian Swint in London at bswint@bloomberg.net; Stanley Reed in London at Sreed13@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at wkennedy3@bloomberg.net

Petroleum Intelligence Weekly Ranks World’s Top 50 Oil Companies (2009)

Rank2007	Rank2006	PIWIndex	Company	Country	State Ownership %
1	1	30	Saudi Aramco	Saudi Arabia	100
2	2	33	NIOC	Iran	100
3	3	37	Exxon Mobil	US
4	5	51	PDV	Venezuela	100
5	7	53	CNPC	China	100
6	4	55	BP	UK
7	6	63	Shell	UK/Netherlands
8	8	83	ConocoPhillips	US
9	9	88	Chevron	US
10	10	90	Total	France
11	11	91	Pemex	Mexico	100
12	12	99	Sonatrach	Algeria	100
13	12	102	Gazprom	Russia	50.0023
14	14	103	KPC	Kuwait	100
15	15	111	Petrobras	Brazil	32.2
16	24	116	Rosneft	Russia	75.16
17	18	124	Petronas	Malaysia	100
18	16	126	Adnoc	UAE	100
18	17	126	Lukoil	Russia
20	19	141	NNPC	Nigeria	100
21	19	144	Eni	Italy	30
22	21	159	QP	Qatar	100
23	23	162	Libya NOC	Libya	100
24	22	166	INOC†	Iraq	100
25	29	173	Sinopec	China	71.84
26	28	176	StatoilHydro	Norway	62.5
27	26	177	EGPC	Egypt	100
28	25	180	Repsol YPF	Spain
29	27	187	Surgutneftegas	Russia
30	30	215	Pertamina	Indonesia	100
31	31	223	ONGC	India	74.14
32	34	246	Marathon	US
32	32	246	PDO	Oman	60
34	37	264	EnCana	Canada
34	—	264	Uzbekneftegas	Uzbekistan	100
36	36	273	Socar	Azerbaijan	100
37	35	288	SPC	Syria	100
38	39	290	Ecopetrol	Colombia	89.9
39	42	291	Apache	US
39	44	291	CNR	Canada
41	37	294	Anadarko	US
42	41	296	Devon Energy	US
43	40	297	TNK-BP‡	Russia
44	43	298	OMV	Austria	31.5
45	48	305	Hess	US
46	44	310	Occidental	US
47	47	312	BG	UK
48	51	316	CNOOC	China	66.41
49	50	322	Inpex	Japan	29.35
50	52	323	Kazmunaigas	Kazakhstan	100