Anyone doubting that the oil spill has a variety of international implications has a reminder from the good folks at Dow Jones.
Zawya Dow Jones is reporting out of Dubai that Libya’s investment group is considering a “strategic stake” in BP to take advantage of the company’s historically low share price. One of the upsides, says one expert, is the “know how” a stake might include. BP responds that it’s not selling assets, but welcomes new shareholders.
They (of course) have some history. For example, Dow Jones also reports that “… BP and its Libyan partner, the Libya Investment Corp., or LIC, in May 2007 signed an exploration and production deal with NOC [or Libyan National Oil Company] worth at least $900 million for the onshore Ghadames and offshore Sirt areas, covering an exploration area of around 54,000 square kilometers.”
This should serve as a reminder that BP is not just another company but is one of the world’s largest and most profitable corporations. It also reminds us that the oil spill has effects that go even beyond the human health and economic challenges that threaten to bankrupt the oil giant – or at least it’s North American companies. We should remember that BP has global impact on oil supplies, which means it has a global strategic role … and we should expect that company leadership will eventually leverage that influence, along with its economic impacts and anything else they can think of.
