BP says not aware of reason for share price drop

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Oil giant BP /quotes/comstock/23s!a:bp. (UK:BP. 352.80, -38.75, -9.90%) /quotes/comstock/13*!bp/quotes/nls/bp (BP 29.20, -5.48, -15.80%) , which is currently battling to contain a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, said Thursday that it's not aware of any reason to justify a steep drop in its share price in U.S. trading on Wednesday. BP's U.S.-traded shares slumped 16% to close at $29.20 on heavy volume as questions mounted over whether it can afford to clean up the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. BP said Thursday that it continues to keep the market updated on the spill through regular announcements and the response to this incident is its top priority. It added that significant additional cash flow, below-target gearing and a strong asset base above gives it significant capacity and flexibility in dealing with the cost of responding to the incident, the environmental remediation and the payment of legitimate claims. The cost of the response to date is approximately $1.43 billion, it noted