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More Than 30 House Lawmakers Call On BP To Suspend Dividend Payment

By Shayndi Raice, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- A coalition of U.S. House lawmakers on Tuesday blasted BP PLC (BP, BP.LN) for continuing with a planned first quarter dividend payment to its shareholders.

"BP's number one priority should be paying every nickel it owes to the people of the Gulf Coast, not handing out billions in shareholder dividends," said Rep. Ed Markey (D., Mass.), a key lawmaker on energy issues. Markey and 31 other House lawmakers sent a letter to Tony Haywood, BP's chief executive, criticizing both the dividend payments and company marketing campaign on the oil spill.

BP confirmed in a corporate regulatory filing Tuesday it will pay shareholders an interim dividend for the first quarter of 84 cents per American depositary share. The company will pay the dividend on June 21 to shareholders of record as of May 7, the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission said. The payment was authorized by BP's board on April 27.

"We find it troubling that your company plans to divert financial resources to shareholder dividends and slick marketing campaigns," the letter said.

In addition to the first quarter dividend, BP is also under pressure over what it intends to do about a dividend that will be announced on July 27.

BP has previously said it was planning to move ahead with an annual $10 billion dividend payment that it had announced one week after the Deepwater Horizon explosion caused the ensuing oil spill disaster.

The congressional letter says that BP should focus its financial efforts on the oil spill. "Not a moment before then should you return to business as usual, " it said.



Read more: http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=201006081720dowjonesdjonline000437&title=more-than-30-house-lawmakers-call-on-bp-to-suspend-dividend-payment#ixzz0qLJV8GbP