BP's costs for the cleanup could run as high as $23 billion, according to Credit Suisse. On top of that, BP could face an additional $14 billion in claims from gulf fisherman and the tourism industry. So while conservative estimates put the bill at $15 billion, something approaching $40 billion is not out of the question. After all, little about this spill has turned out as expected.

The company has about $12 billion in cash and short-term investments, but there is already a debate about whether it should cut its dividend out of fear that it could run out of money ... But all those numbers don't account for the greatest possible threat: a jury verdict against BP. Such a verdict might push the cost of the spill into the hundreds of billions. If that happened, even BP might buckle.

So far in its coverage of the BP Gulf spill, the media has made much of the fact that the company's daily profits are higher than its daily cleanup costs, and that after raking in $17 billion in profits last year alone, such costs are but a drop in the bucket. But that's changing fast -- and if a few other factors come to pass, it's possible that the Gulf spill will end up bankrupting the oil giant. Speculators are calling this possible outcome the "Texaco scenario." Here's how it would work.