No. of Recommendations: 4
So all their remaining operations outside the US are burdened by bureaucracy, costs, and potential fines that their competitors don't face.
If I read the article correctly, seems there would be an incentive for the EU based companies to abandon the US, due to the requirement for their US operations to meet EU regs, which would hurt their profits, vs US based companies.
And can Shell, BP, and Total meet the Euro Union's energy demands alone?
Refineries change hands from time to time. BP's US refineries were generally built by predecessor companies that BP bought. Not that many years ago, Marathon bought Ashland's downstream assets. The same would happen in the EU, if the European companies thought they needed the extra capacity: buy up the assets of US companies that are abandoning the market. BP could spin off it's US assets into a separate company. I haven't seen the SOHIO brand in decades. I have been noticing an apparent revival of the Amoco brand around metro Detroit, so BP may already be considering a spin-off.
Steve
