Wednesday newspaper round-up: BP, Waitrose/Ocado, Formula 1

BP lost valuable time at the height of its devastating accident in the Gulf of Mexico last year pursuing solutions to contain the oil spill that were never going to succeed, the chief executive of ExxonMobil has claimed. In a sharp criticism of the handling of the disaster, Rex Tillerson said Exxon's engineers knew that one of BP's initial efforts to stem the oil flowing from the ruptured Macondo well - by building a containment dome - "wasn't going to work," the Financial Times reports.The final cost to BP from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is likely to "remain uncertain for years to come" and could reach $60bn (£37bn), according to new analysis from Moody's, the rating agency. BP is budgeting for maximum final costs of $41bn to settle fines, compensation and clean-up operations, based on the assumption that it will not be found guilty of any allegations of gross negligence, according to the Daily Telegraph.Waitrose is taking the fight to Ocado, the online grocer, by opening a massive "virtual shop" in west London this October to ramp up the delivery of orders from its website in the capital. Waitrose staff, rather than customers, will walk the aisles of the store in Acton, picking groceries to fill internet orders, and the supermarket expects it will enable a huge uplift in weekly orders, reports the Independent.A European fund manager has launched court proceedings in the US against 12 banks it alleges manipulated Libor, the inter-bank lending rate, between 2006 and 2009. FTC Capital, which is based in Vienna, claimed the banks colluded to artificially depress the cost of borrowing and limit trade in Libor-based derivatives during the period, the Daily Telegraph says.The Independent reports that News Corporation is in preliminary discussions with potential business partners, including the world's richest man, Carlos Slim, about entering a bid for Formula 1 motor racing, it was reported last night. As well as the Mexican telecoms billionaire, Rupert Murdoch's global media company has also held talks with at least one Formula 1 team about putting a consortium together to purchase the business, according to Sky News - which is itself owned partly by News Corp.Mail Online, the internet version of the Daily Mail (owned by DMGT), was yesterday named as the second-most popular news website in the world. Data from the metrics company ComScore placed Mail Online ahead of the Huffington Post, the liberal-leaning blog site which has become one of America's biggest online publishing successes, the Independent reports.The Daily Mail, which modestly fails to mention its accolade, reports that the chairman of taxpayer-owned Royal Bank of Scotland admitted that large bonuses are 'hard to justify' at the loss-making bank, which came close to collapse in 2008. But Sir Philip Hampton told a long and stormy meeting of more than 200 shareholders that multimillion pound rewards are the 'cost of doing business today'.Bankers taking risks on a "almost unbelievable" scale, a complicit public willing to "let the good times roll" and a lack of regulation combined to cause the collapse of the Irish banking system, a government-commissioned report concludes. A nine-month inquiry by Finnish finance expert Peter Nyberg published is scathing about the banks which, he says, lost control, but also contains criticism of Irish society in general and institutions including the civil service and regulatory authorities, the Guardian reports.Ryanair is to break one of the taboos of low-cost aviation by offering seat reservations at £10 each way. Although the airline grabs headlines for threatening to charge people to use onboard toilets or save money by dumping co-pilots, it normally turns to conventional ruses for raising extra cash, including baggage fees and speedy boarding charges, according to the Guardian. ---RG