Dividends in a Real-World Setting. BP's situation and dividend decision after the Deepwater Horizon accident in 2010

Essay from the year 2016 in the subject Business economics - Investment and Finance, grade: 3,0, University of Newcastle (Finance), language: English, abstract: BP is one of the world's leading international oil and gas companies. BP was founded in 1908. Today, BP has its headquarters in London. BP provides their customers with energy for heat and light, fuel for transportation and a lot more services. At one of BP's oilrigs, 'Deepwater Horizon' in the Gulf of Mexico, an accident occurred on 20 April 2010. A gas release and subsequent explosion cost 11 people the land resulted in 4.9m barrels of oil being discharged, threatening marine life and hundreds of miles of coastline. After this accident, the US government wanted BP to use the profit to pay for the Gulf of Mexico clean up instead of paying dividends to their shareholders, which put BP under intense pressure.