New Drilling Ban Issued By U.S. Government, Stemmed From BP (NYSE:BP)

After much criticism, the U.S. Government has issued a new revised moratorium which stemmed from BP's (NYSE:BP) disastrous oil spill. It was said Obama's administration would have to do this after a U.S. appeals court ruled against it, saying there wasn't legal basis to shut down all oil drilling. Especially when so many livelihoods depend upon it.

This new improved moratorium is geared more towards the people and business that have been effected. The priority being to protect the thousands of jobs in the Gulf region, while at the same time looking to make the oil industry safer. Ken Salazar, Interior Secretary, is to issue and put into effect the revised, more flexible moratorium at 4 pm EDT.

A government source said that under the new ban deepwater production will be allowed to continue, only some deepwater drilling will be banned. If new safety and environmental rules are meet than shallow drilling will be allowed to continue. If Salazar finds that deepwater drilling can be resumed safely, the freeze could end before November 30th, continued the source.

According to spokesman Robert Gibbs, the White House feels strongly that the revised moratorium will stand up in court.

BP's (NYSE:BP) Takeover: Shell (LSE:RDSA) or Exxon (NYSE:XOM)

BP's (NYSE:BP) fallen far enough in their stock prices for them to be considered attractive to other big oil oil companies and rivals like Shell (LSE:RDSA) and Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) to purchase. On April 19th BP's stocks closed at $60.09, the day before the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded. With yesterdays stock prices closing at $28.88, that's a loss of over 50 percent of their market value.

"In theory, either Exxon Mobil or RD Shell could consider a bid for BP," said Lucas to investors. "We focus on these two names because they have similar business models and similar global asset structures. They also bear the lowest political risk to a potential combination with BP."

This idea of a takeover by Lucas was "prompted by the gap between the current market value of BP and the intrinsic value that we see in BP." Douglas Youngston, an oil industry analyst of Arbuthnot Securities told CNNMoney if BP's stock fell below $30 a share, it would then become appealing as a possible takeover target.

Youngson said, "if the share price continues to fall, other companies may see this for the bargain it will be." He said this on June 2nd when BP's stock price hit $37.66.

Shell (LSE:RDSA) Penalized By Bond Market, 2.75 Billion Debt Offering

In a 2.75 billion dollar debt offering, Shell (LSE:RDSA) received penalties by the bond market. Anadarko's notes saw a significant decline as fear mounts that profits will fall across the oil industry due to the worst U.S. oil spill in history.

Shell has the most rigs in the Gulf that are now being effected by the deepwater drilling ban. The effect is causing Shell to face higher yield spreads causing investors considerable doubt to weather the government will further increase restrictions and regulations. Anadarko has yet to see if they will be required to pay their share of the oil spill disaster. Having a 25 percent stake, if it's found that they do have to pay they would be required to pay 25 percent of the oil cleanup costs.

Levington, a managing director of corporate credit at Brookfield in New York said, "it could delay the timely projects or possibly eliminate them. It could require additional monitoring and maintenance, all of which could hurt earnings, cash flow, and returns on oil invested capital."