BP Gulf Spill Settlement Payments Exceed $1B

NEW ORLEANS -- BP's payments to businesses and individuals who claim the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico cost them money now total more than $1 billion, according to court-supervised claims administrator Patrick Juneau. The settlement money was paid through the oil company's class-action settlement with a team of private plaintiffs' attorneys and exceeded the $1-billion mark prior to the end of 2012, reported the Associated Press

Ninety-five percent of claimants who were offered payments accepted them, Juneau noted.

"I feel this high rate of acceptance reflects the fairness of the settlement amounts as well as the fairness of the claims process," Juneau said in a statement.

The court-supervised claims process, established in June 2012, replaced the Gulf Coast Claims Facility. An additional $404 million in claims were paid during the transition period between programs, according to Juneau. He added that his staffers have handled more than 223,000 calls about the settlement and received more than 97,000 claims.

BP expects to pay approximately $7.8 billion to more than 100,000 claims, as CSNews Online previously reported. However, there is no cap to the settlement.

The filing deadline for claims for the settlement's Seafood Compensation Program is Jan. 22, according to the report. The deadline for filing all other claims is April 22, 2014.