Dividends from BP irk Gulf residents

NEW ORLEANS — BP’s decision to resume paying dividends rankled Gulf Coast residents Tuesday who saw it as another sign the company wants to move on even though many are still suffering from last year’s massive oil spill.

Oil stains linger in marshes along Louisiana’s fragile coast and tens of thousands of victims are waiting for final payments from a $20 billion compensation fund, while a large number of people haven’t received any money at all.

The 7 cents per ordinary share payable to BP shareholders March 28, or about $1.25 billion overall, isn’t a lot by BP’s standards — it’s half what the company paid investors for the final quarter of 2009 — but Gulf residents frowned on the idea of going back to business as usual.

“BP has so much money that we can’t really fathom it, but BP has to take care of its obligations to us,” said Pass Christian, Miss., shrimper Bobby Barnett.

Barnett said London-based BP still owes him compensation, which he has filed for, for damages from a shortened season after the spill halted shrimping in some areas for much of the summer. He’s also worried about the long-term effect on Gulf seafood from the dispersants BP used to break up the oil.

“This is a slap in the face to the thousands of victims forced to watch BP line its shareholders’ pockets while they struggle to pay their mortgage and put food on the table,” said James P. Roy, a lead attorney for plaintiffs suing BP and other companies over the disaster.

U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu acknowledges that it’s up to BP to decide when and how much it pays in dividends to its shareholders.

But, the Louisiana Democrat said, “I intend to hold them accountable for paying every penny they owe to make businesses and families in Louisiana whole again and to repair the damage the spill did to the state’s coast and our seafood industry.”

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