BP Presents New Oil-Capture Plan

BP has its answer to President Obama’s demand for a new plan: The oil company is planning to outfit its cap on the Gulf oil leak with an additional choke line and floating risers to increase its capacity to trap up to 53,000 barrels of oil per day from by the end of June from the current rate of 15,000 barrels per day. (The official estimate, meanwhile, is that 35,000 barrels of oil a day are leaking; does this mean that BP knows, as many have claimed, that the official estimates are still too low?) Meanwhile, the company is looking at three options for what to do with its next dividend payment to shareholders, according to The New York Times: “suspending payment of the dividend for two quarters, paying the dividend in bonus shares or escrowing the amount of the dividend while paying for the cleanup.”