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US, BP end talks on $20 billion fund

Category  :  Industry
Date  :  Aug-10-2010 09:48

A US Justice Department official stated that negotiations with BP have ended.This is in order to ensure that the oil company follows through on a commitment.It is to establish a $20 billion compensation fund for victims of the Gulf oil spill.Meanwhile, the official calls the end of negotiations a vital step for BP to honor the promises it made regarding the fund.The Obama administration, however, looks forward to finish a security agreement with BP.This is so that all necessary funds will be there. On the other hand, the security agreement is necessary.It is in case something was to happen to a company subsidiary that established the trust.Earlier, it was said that as per the court documents oil major BP has filed a lawsuit against six of its former employees of its global fuel oil and Asia bunker team. Legal action is been taken against them who had quit the job since the end of May for breach of contract.When enquired about the issue, a BP spokeswoman refused to comment further than saying that an investigation is being conducted.A legal action was filed at the Singapore High Court on July 5 against all the six former senior BP staff who had left the job since May. These former employees are supposed to have violated their fiduciary duties to BP, breached their employment agreement, including their dependability and also have wrongly used the confidential information.The defendants to the suit include some of the top officials of the company such as former head of global fuel oil trading, Quek Chin Thean, Asia head of marine fuels business, Clarence Chang, trading manager John Foo, head of operations for all oil products in Asia, Paul John Bradshaw, legal manager Simon Cheong and administrative executive Laura Kuan, the documents showed.As per reports at least 18 staff, comprising of three regional team leaders in Singapore, London and the United States had given up their job over the past month, with most of then probably joined Brightoil, a China-based firm which has been enhancing its trading capabilities over the past year.Around 20 staff had quit from Singapore alone, since then BP had substitute some of the key officials, included an appointment of a new global fuel oil trading head, Marcus Cooper, a BP experienced person who had previously led oil major"s US-based global gasoline trade operations and had also been its director of crude trading.BP has chosen expert trader Stephen Ng, one of two members of its Asia fuel oil team who did not quit with others, as head of its regional fuel oil desk, and US-based Carlos Torres as head of its Asia marine fuels division.It also substituted its fuel oil trading heads for Europe and the US internally over the past month and beefed up its Singapore and US teams through internal hiring.BP is the biggest marine fuels provider by quantity in Singapore, the world''s largest bunker port, contributing for about 10 per cent of the city-state''s average monthly volumes of 3.2-3.3 million tonnes.Further, BP had also been a prominent player in the fuel oil cargo trading market for over a decade, frequently mounting profitable trading plays, before its long serving team discontinued its services.

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