BP Plc (BP)

[Rawnoc]

"According to BP sources, the rate at which cash is leaking from the company could turn into a serious new financial crisis for the company, putting at risk its dividend and making it vulnerable to a takeover by another oil company.

"BP is so worried by the potential magnitude of alleged undeserved payments it is making to companies that it is planning to ask the UK prime minister and chancellor for help in persuading the US government to intervene."

[...]

"In practice, according to BP, [these] companies don't have to show a fall in profits as measured on normal accounting practices," according to Mr Peston.

"All they have to show, says the court filing, is that cash flow in a specified month or months is lower than cash flow in the same month or months before the oil spill," he wrote in his blog on the BBC News website.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22549710