Brent oil trading over $76 as UK PM looks to protect BP

Brent oil prices are back over the $76 mark on Tuesday afternoon as the UK PM looks to protect BP from the massive and potentially unlimited clean up costs being imposed on the company.

In London, Brent crude oil futures for September 2010 delivery was at $76.22, 18.15 GMT on the ICE Futures Exchange and looked to have some support higher.

Oil Spill Concerns for UK Prime Minister

UK Prime Minister David Cameron has concerns of his own about BP and among them is quieting criticism of the London based company. He brings a message that BP, the fourth biggest company in the world by annual turnover needs to survive to fulfill its promise to compensate US victims of the Gulf oil spill.

Most of the coverage surrounding Cameron’s first official US visit concerns BP, which remains one of Great Britain’s major companies, and criticism of the Gulf Coast oil spill have increased US British tensions.

Later today, Cameron will meet with four U.S. senators on another sensitive BP topic: Allegations that it lobbied the government of Scotland to release an airplane bomber because of an oil deal in Libya.

Cameron defended BP on that claim, telling NPR that the release of the man convicted in the 1988 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, was wrong, but “it wasn’t the decision of BP, it was the decision of Scottish ministers.”

The oil spill, meanwhile, is very much BP’s responsibility, Cameron said.

“Of course, BP has got to do everything necessary to cap the oil well, to clean up the spill, to pay compensation,” the British leader said. “I’ve met with BP, I know they want to do that, and they will do that.”