BP’s $17bn loss, amid the Gulf of Mexico clean-up, was trumpeted as “the biggest quarterly loss ever announced by a British company.” That’s not a hard record to dispute: few companies could lose so much and remain solvent, but even fewer report their results four times a year. BP had the field to itself.

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When is a dividend increase not an increased dividend? When the company denominates its dividends in dollars but pays them to UK investors.
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Why is Shell paying nearly £10m to settle claims of human rights abuse in Nigeria if it is not guilty? Because it is cheaper to pay up than fight on – even if it encourages further claims.
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If the bad news is that oil is back over $60 a barrel, that rise is also the good news too. While it puts pressure on costs, the price increase is also telling us the recession is ending.
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The idea of former Royal Bank of Scotland chairman Sir Tom McKillop
seeking re-election as a director of BP reminds me of the joke about the drunken magistrates.
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