BP wins reprieve on Gulf of Mexico payments from US Appeals Court

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"As of Wednesday, about $3.69 billion has been paid out, according to Juneau's claims website. (here)."...

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10/3/13, "BP wins reprieve over Gulf of Mexico payouts," BBC

"Oil giant BP's attempts to limit claims over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill have been given a boost after a US appeals court halted some payments.

A federal appeals court has asked the lower district court to take a fresh look at which claims are legitimate.

The higher court said that if businesses that did not suffer losses from the spill were compensated, the whole settlement could be invalid.

It is a key win for BP which had said the payment formula was too generous.

The oil giant, which had agreed to pay compensation for the disaster, had claimed that the existing formula paid people who were not harmed. BP had expected payouts to total $7.8bn (£4.9bn), but said that the amount was being driven higher by excessive fees and bogus claims....

BP has faced about $42.4bn in charges since the disaster aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, which triggered the worst offshore oil spill in US history.

The blast killed 11 workers and released an estimated four million barrels of oil into the gulf.

BP has made two previous, unsuccessful attempts, to halt compensation payments."

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10/3/13, "BP wins reprieve over Gulf spill payouts - U.S. appeals court," Reuters, Jonathan Stempel



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