What

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico past two weeks.

looks like a disaster for the Investors also shouldn’t
environment and the fishing and overreact to the possibility that a
tourism industries. But if you’re legislative backlash will make

about
more concerned about whether future drilling in U.S. waters
or not to buy BP’s stock, it’s no harder and less profitable. BP is
disaster at all. one of the biggest drillers in the
BP is down 17 percent since Gulf of Mexico, but the Gulf only
April 20, when a drilling rig that it accounts for about 10 percent of
had leased exploded and began total production. That means any

BP?
leaking oil into the Gulf. Shares new restrictions wouldn’t apply to
of the rig’s owner, drilling most of BP’s business.
contractor Transocean, are down BP has history on its side, too.
21 percent. Those stocks have In the weeks following the
dropped partly because nobody massive Exxon Valdez oil spill
knows how much it will cost to in 1989, Exxon’s stock fell
clean up the spill. BP is already 6 percent, but recovered within
spending about $6 million per a month. Since then, it’s risen
day to stop the leak. more than 500 percent.
Despite that, if you want either —Chip Cutter
stock for the long haul, now’s the
time to buy. Citigroup analyst
Mark Fletcher calls the sell-off
“overdone” and says this is a
buying opportunity. Goldman
Sachs also calls it a “buy.”
Even if the cost of BP’s clean-
up tops $5 billion, that doesn’t
justify the $30 billion drop in its
market capitalization during the

SOURCES: Thomson Reuters; Birinyi Associates; Mark Gilman; Cory Garcia AP