By Carl Mortished and Tom Baldwin
FEARS that BP’s Prudhoe Bay production stoppage could extend for several months sent the stock market value of Britain’s largest company tumbling below Shell, its Dutch rival.
BP surged ahead of Shell when the reputation of the latter was damaged by the misreporting of its reserves in 2003. Shell’s valuation briefly topped BP last August when Royal Dutch Petroleum absorbed its British sister, Shell Transport & Trading, but since then BP has consistently maintained a lead over Shell as the second-largest oil company, after Exxon Mobil.