The visit of the Chief Executive Officer of BP, Mr. Tony Hayward, to Abu Dhabi on 6 July revived speculation about the possibility that the British company might be looking for partners among the sovereign wealth funds of Arabian Gulf countries to give it financial support and deter a possible hostile takeover bid from a competitor such as ExxonMobil or Royal Dutch Shell. The United Arab Emirates newspaper The National was the first to reveal on 4 July that BP was looking for strategic investors in the Middle East. After the British company's share price had sunk to a low on 29 June, it had regained 19% of its value by the close of business on 7 July, since investors' hopes had been buoyed by these rumors and by reports that the drilling of a relief well close to the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico would be completed towards the end of July rather than in August. On 12 July BP announced that the total cost of the oil spill had reached $3.5 billion by then, including the compensation paid to states bordering the Gulf and their residents, as well as federal costs.
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