http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jun/01/bp-shares-drop-gulf-...

• BP shares suffer biggest one-day fall
• Group's market value down £44bn since rig exploded
• Group to fight oil spill with containment cap

Shares in BP plunged as much as 20% at one stage this morning – wiping another £14bn off the company's market value – after the oil producer failed over the weekend to stop its catastrophic oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.

BP has now lost £44bn of its market capitalisation since 20 April, when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded. By 10am the shares had staged a
partial recovery from early lows of 420p, after their biggest fall in
18 years, but were still trading 14% lower, at 427p.

The company said a containment cap will be connected towards the end of the week, although the spill could worsen in the meantime. BP has spent almost
$1bn (£700m) so far attempting to plug the leak, but said it was "too
early" to quantify other potential costs and liabilities associated
with the incident. The total bill could rise to as much as $12bn,
according to UBS.

The new strategy is the company's "best option", BP chief executive Tony Hayward said in a statement today.

The company has received as many as 30,000 claims, mostly from businesses in the US states of Texas, Louisiana, Alabama and Florida, which
involve loss of earnings or bereavement suffered by families of the 11
workers killed when the rig caught fire.