REUTERS
Michael Erman NEW YORK Mon Jun 14, 2010 5:56pm EDT (Reuters) – BP Plc has hired investment banks Blackstone Group LP, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Credit Suisse Group AG as advisers in the wake of its massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, according to a source familiar with the matter.BP spokesman Tony Odone said the company had “no comment on who our advisers are and what their role is.”
Odone also said there was no truth to a previous report that the company had hired banks with a mandate to defend it from unwanted takeover attempts.
The company has lost more than 40 percent of its market value since the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig that led to the worst U.S. oil spill ever.
Millions of gallons of oil have gushed into the Gulf since an April 20 explosion on an offshore rig killed 11 workers and ruptured BP’s well. The spill has soiled 120 miles of U.S. coastline, imperiled a multibillion-dollar fishing industry, and killed birds, sea turtles and dolphins.