BP's Oil Catastrophe forced two items into hold. The first is William Reilly's board seat at ConocoPhillips, a joint venture partner with BP in the massive Tiber field in the Gulf of Mexico. The second is BP's quarterly dividend.
Reilly announced he would take a temporary leave of absence from the ConocoPhillips board during his term a co-chair of Obama's Oil Catastrophe Commission. He'll still control over $2 million in ConocoPhillips stock, with an ability to impact its future value.
As for BP's dividend, MarketWatch reported:
BP PLC is expected to defer payment of about $2.5 billion in second-quarter dividends by placing the funds in an escrow account until the company can determine its liabilities from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the Times of London reported Friday in its online edition, citing people familiar with the situation.Temporary leave of absence and escrow, these are moves to placate.
