- The U.K. government has intervened publicly for the first time in support of BP in its dispute with the U.S. government over the 2010 Gulf oil spill, saying in an amicus brief filed overnight that the decision to bar BP (BP -0.2%) from U.S. federal contracts was "excessive" and that regulators had not applied the law fairly and predictably.
- The government felt compelled to act amid growing concern that the U.S. actions could have a harmful effect on British jobs and pension funds that invest heavily in BP, FT reports.
- Yesterday, the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals may have been spared BP from making hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation payments stemming from the 2010 spill, as it called for a halt to payments to any business that cannot trace its injury directly back to the spill.