From TFA:<p>&gt;  If a consortium of private-equity investors raised the $118 billion needed to buy BP at its current share price, it could immediately start to liquidate 10.5 billion barrels of proven reserves worth over $360 billion, even at today’s “depressed” price of $36 a barrel.<p>Their oil reserves alone are worth nearly 3 times the market value of the company. The other assets you talk of could even have a negative value of $100b and the equation still works.