of those large suppliers along with exxon mobil and shell and chevron and the other large producers. the thing that's interesting in this particular case is that bp's share has increased since the blowout. and i believe that the government has done that before the e.p.a. shuts it down or temporarily shut them down, to keep bp viable in the u.s. so they could continue to pay the fines that are certainly going to come from the spill itself. >> john: that is a fashion nateing hypothesis. i want to ask you about it. what kind of message does it send to bp when the pentagon awards the company $2.5 billion the same year it spills a record amount of oil in the gulf. were they that hard up for cash to begin with? >> part of the challenge here, during the blowout at least for the government was to keep bp viable so they could pay the costs. at least bp viable in the united states. if you recall, there was a lot of talk during the early days of the blowout about how serious it was and whether...