BP (NYSE:BP) To Make Billions Off Remaining Oil?

Now that the end is coming as far as permanently plugging the oil well, the question needs to be asked as to what to do with the remaining oil, which estimated at about 45,000 barrels. That would generate close to $3.7 billion at current market prices, and more if oil prices continue to rise.

The attempt is already being made to make it sound controversial if BP somehow taps into the oil or sells the oil well to another company in order to generate revenue.

But the issue is simpler than that: do we waste that many barrels of oil for no reason? Now that the well is safely plugged, why waste that much oil?

Some ridiculous comments are already being made that oil from the site shouldn't be used commercially, as if it's some type of holy site or shrine. It's a place to access oil for millions of people to use for their needs. To let it sit and waste underneath the Gulf of Mexico would be a crime, and poor management of our resources.

There is the possibility BP may want to leave the well as it is with the top kill, as it will hold the oil in and leave it available for access in the future.

You can be sure there are conversations with government officials about this, as the waste of 45,000 barrels and the use it could get, jobs it would create, and money it would make, all make it in the best interest of Americans to have the oil be extracted from the well and used.

To think differently would be naive. What's being weighed is how deep the political fallout would be if it was to go forward.

This is why second thoughts have been thrown out be BP about the pumping of cement and mud into the well using the relief well. As once it's completed, there is no way to be able to access the oil.

At minimum, I would think they're at least considering selling the existing well to another company in order to have the oil not go to waste, and to make it more palatable to those who would strongly oppose BP retaining possession and resuming drilling.

How government officials, especially, respond to these questions will determine whether or not it's something that's in the works or not.