There are a number of oil and gas companies that are facing lawsuits at the moment. Lawsuits, of course, are a part of an industry as precarious as this. In this article, I will examine four oil and gas companies currently facing litigation and how it will affect each stock.

BP p.l.c. (BP), for example, will soon settle a discrimination lawsuit that has been waged against it for $5.4 million. The lawsuit is in a way related to the Gulf Oil Spill, as the plaintiffs are women who claim that BP did not hire them during the cleanup operations solely on the basis of their gender. Despite the fact that BP is settling, I do not think that there is sufficient evidence that the company engaged in gender discrimination at all. In fact, I feel that this is a company with a very open and fair gender equity policy. BP denies that it has done anything wrong, and the lawsuit really seems to be an unfair conclusion to the situation.

As you can see in this regard, the lawsuit places BP in a bad light even though the company is most likely innocent of all charges. Of course, $5.4 million is not much for a company as large as BP (its Market Cap is over $128 billion). However, the company will need to make sure that this will not cause more lawsuits to come to light, as it cannot afford to keep itself in court.To continue reading, click here.