David Cameron will defend BP on a 2 day visit to Washington D.C., this week and he will insist that the BP Group must have a “stable and strong” future for the sake of the UK economy and the pensioners who rely on its dividends

After almost 3 months of attacks against in the US Congress provoked by the rare accident in the Gulf of Mexico, BP is looking to regain the initiative.
The group continued to stop any oil leaking from its Macondo well on Sunday, using a cap installed this week, and is putting a system in place to collect all the Crude Oil that has escaped.

BP shares have recovered in the past 2 weeks as hopes rise that it can prevent the costs of the?spill?from getting?out of control.

The political attacks on BP in the US Congress continued last week, with allegations over the company’s role in the release of Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, the convicted Lockerbie bomber, and a threat to stop it securing any more offshore exploration leases.

BP is concerned that the pressure from US politicians could cripple the company, leaving it vulnerable to a takeover bid from ExxonMobil, the largest US Crude Oil group.

Carl-Henric Svanberg, BP’s Chairman, met Mr. Cameron Friday to urge him to help counter the attacks being directed against BP from Washington’s administration and Congress.

Mr. Cameron told Mr. Svanberg that he did not want to inflame the row, but that he would deliver a firm reminder to US President Barack Obama and the congressional leaders of the importance of BP to the UK economy. “The prime minister will be keen to make clear how important the company is as a UK employer and how important it is for pension funds,” one official said, speaking after the 45-minute meeting with Mr. Svanberg.

In another move to support BP, Sir Nigel Sheinwald, UK Ambassador to Washington, rejected the accusation by some US Senators that the BP Group had lobbied the UK government to release Mr. al-Megrahi from jail in an attempt to win new contracts in Libya. In a letter to Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, Sir Nigel said inaccuracies were “harmful to the UK”. BP has acknowledged it did lobby the UK government to speed up a prisoner transfer agreement with Libya.

Mr. Cameron and Mr. Svanberg agreed that the Prime Minister should not stoke the row, nor exaggerate the threat to BP posed by some US Senators, but that he would stress the UK national interest.

A aide to Mr. Cameron said: “At the moment, we are not overly worried. These are just a few senators talking at the moment. We do not think the US administration is taking it too seriously either.”

Mr. Cameron is not expected directly to lobby any of the Senators who have been most critical of BP, including Chuck Schumer from New York, who accused BP of making a “wink-and-nod request” for Mr al-Megrahi to be freed. Stay tuned….Paul A. Ebeling, Jnr. www.livetradingnews.com

Posted by Shayne Heffernan on Jul 19th, 2010and filed underEquities, Europe, Latest News, Markets, News & Events.You can follow any responses to this entry through theRSS 2.0You can leave a response by filling following comment form or trackback to this entry from your site