On BBC this morning there was a stock analyst that thinks this might be a good time to buy, even though his company has an official "SELL" on BP Stock.

Other than the usual blather one interesting fact did emerge.

The Exxon Valdez court settlement (just the fine alone) came to 1 (ONE) years pre-tax profit. They are still paying bills for cleanup years later.

This disaster is considered to be twice that of the Valdez spill, even by conservative estimates. There for he calculates that a fine of a year's pre-tax BP profits per multiple of the Valdez could be forthcoming.

So even at the conservative estimate of twice the Valdez your talking about two years pre-tax as a base for any fines.... since BP's cap has been halved in the recent days it would surely have an impact on their ability to pay out substantial dividends going forward. Since BP pays 1 out of every 6 or 7 dividend dollars, on the London Exchange, it will impact a lot of funds, retirement and otherwise..

Not a good scenario, not on my list of acquisitions at least until some determination as to how severe the situation is.

E. G.