Mark my words, BP knows almost EXACTLY how much of their ASSET is being DEPLETED.

[LeftyFingerPop]

The oil in that well is, I believe, shown on their books as an asset...probably called "oil reserves" until it is grabbed from the earth. Further, without looking at their financial statements, they probably have this broken out by well, and then further broken out as "proven" vs. "unproven".

For them to tell the media that they have no idea how much of that multi-billion dollar ASSET they are losing every day is complete fucking horse shit.

When is the media going to call them on this shit?

[Scuba]

1. I thought it was our oil....

...and they were supposed to pay us royalties. Bet the royalties don't come close to 1/4 the $30B a year BP is making.

[Statistical]

2. Not in the US. We stupidly use a lease model.

BP leases the land for an upfront payment and then can extract whatever they want.

Most countries in the world use one of two other models:

Royalty model - host country collects a fee per barrel either a flat fee or a % of difference between extraction cost & market price

OR

Contractor model - the oil is owned by host nation. They simply pay the oil company as a contractor for each barrel extracted.

The lease model is the most profitable for shareholders and least profitable for citizens. Guess it is no coincidence that oil extraction works on that model in US public lands. :(

[ljm2002]

3. In answer to your question...

..."When is the media going to call them on this shit?"

Never. The media will not do its job, and hasn't for some time. With occasional exceptions, like the excellent 60 Minutes report the other day -- there was a rare example of real journalism.

[damntexdem]

4. But they won't tell until they are really kicked in the asset.

;-)