How Much Will BP Have to Pay for the Oil Spill?

ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE

By BETSY SCHIFFMAN Posted 4:00 PM 04/30/10 Exxon Mobil, BP

If history has taught oil companies anything, it’s that cleaning up a major spill doesn’t really have to cost much. Sure, there are legal fees to pay, clean up costs to cover and lawsuits to settle, but oil companies know how to minimize those costs. In the case of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, it’s still not clear how severe the damages are or how hefty the final bill will be; the company is already paying roughly $6 million per day to cover cleanup and containment costs. And BP will surely be dealing with reputational damage.

Given Wall Street’s reaction, it appears that investors are betting that BP (BP) will get away with paying a nominal sum. The company’s shares recovered in Friday’s trading after one financial analyst estimated that the disaster could cost the company as little as $3 billion. (O.K., $3 billion isn’t insignificant, but for a company that raked in a $6.1 billion profit in a three-month period, it basically amounts to a minor setback.)

Lawyers seem to disagree with Wall Street, though.