HOUSTON -- Nearly two months into the spill, BP continues to gush almost as much money as oil and some people are finding that the disaster is hitting their pension funds.
Despite a slight rebound on Wall Street Thursday, there was little cause for celebration, just one day after the company's stock plunged to a 14-year low.
"BP share prices have dropped by 50 percent," said Andy Lipow, of Lipow Oil Associates. "And many people in Texas are going to be affected."
The Employees Retirement system of Texas, for example, has 4.1 million shares of BP.
"Those shares have declined $30 per share, which means a pension loss of over $120 million since this event happened in April," Lipow said.
The disaster may be unfolding in the gulf, but its effects reach all the way to Britain, especially if BP stops issuing dividends at the urging of Congress.
"British Petroleum is the most widely held stock in England," said John Bott, II, a prominent Houston hedge fund manager. "And there's a lot of pensioners depending on the dividend.
Bott said BP CEO Tony Hayward would be risking his job to suspend the dividend and would probably lose it.
