British Petroleum (BP) ’s big bill for the world’s largest oil spill reaches $61.6 billion (Source: Washington Post)

(500 triệu/61.6 tỷ) <1% !!!

What’s bigger than the value of Ford, Honda or General Motors? As big as the biggest U.S. electric utility? Eight times the size of Staples and Office Depot combined — if a judge hadn’t blocked their merger?

The answer: the $61.6 billion cost to BP of the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

On Thursday, BP issued its final estimate of the cost of the spill, the largest in U.S. history. The company said that it would take a pre-tax charge of $5.2 billion in the second quarter of this year and added that would be enough to cover anything that hasn’t been resolved.

On an after-tax basis, BP’s spill costs will amount to $44 billion with the additional charge of $2.5 billion in the second quarter, the company said.

“It’s a really scary number,” said Fadel Gheit, oil analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. “Before the accident, BP had a market capitalization of $180 billion. The accident actually shaved off one-third of the market capitalization of the company. It’s a miracle that the company is still in business.”

Life for BP changed on April 20, 2010, when a blowout a mile under water sent oil and gas surging up to the Deepwater Horizon exploration rig, setting it on fire, sinking it and killing 11 crew members. The well leaked for 87 days, pouring at least 3.19 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

And it triggered a flood of lawsuits and federal penalties.