BP oil spill “frightening reminder” of tail risk, say analysts

As oil continues to spill into the Gulf of Mexico, analysts have warned there is little investors can do to hedge against the risk of disasters on the scale of the Deepwater Horizon incident.

bp-oil-spill
BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig collapsed on April 22

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, triggered by the collapse of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig on April 22, has highlighted the issue of tail risk for credit investors.

BP’s market value plummeted as the crisis escalated: between April 21 and June 16, the company’s share price sank 47.7%, from 650 pence per share to 340. The company was downgraded by the major rating agencies: including a six notch downgrade (from AA to BBB) from Fitch Ratings on June 15. Although the announcement, on June 16

Only users who have a paid subscription or are part of a corporate subscription are able to print or copy content.

To access these options, along with all other subscription benefits, please contact info@risk.net or view our subscription options here: http://subscriptions.risk.net/subscribe

You are currently unable to copy this content. Please contact info@risk.net to find out more.

Sorry, our subscription options are not loading right now

Please try again later. Get in touch with our customer services team if this issue persists.

New to Risk.net? View our subscription options

Credit risk & modelling – Special report 2021

This Risk special report provides an insight on the challenges facing banks in measuring and mitigating credit risk in the current environment, and the strategies they are deploying to adapt to a more stringent regulatory approach.

The wild world of credit models

The Covid-19 pandemic has induced a kind of schizophrenia in loan-loss models. When the pandemic hit, banks overprovisioned for credit losses on the assumption that the economy would head south. But when government stimulus packages put wads of cash in…

Most read articles loading...

You need to sign in to use this feature. If you don’t have a Risk.net account, please register for a trial.

Sign in
You are currently on corporate access.

To use this feature you will need an individual account. If you have one already please sign in.

Sign in.

Alternatively you can request an individual account here