Pay-outs from the compensation fund for victims of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico disaster have risen by nearly half a billion dollars in just a month, it has emerged.
Compensation fund administrator Patrick Juneau said he had now offered $4.44billion in payments to claimants – up $470million from a month ago.
FuelFix reported that the latest court filing from the administrator said that more than 53,300 eligibility notices had been issued with offers, with an average claim of $83,000.
More than half the claims relate to business loss, with an average claim for firms of $254,000.
The figures mark the latest move in the increasingly bitter dispute between BP and the claims administrators, which the British oil giant is currently appealing in the US courts.
BP has disputed the claims process, and had launched a bid to stop compensation payments being made while a former FBI director invested alleged misconduct in the payment process.
The company is now calling on people to report fraudulent claims online, in addition to a high profile fraud hotline launched last month.
Earlier this week BP launched a law suit against the US Government for blocking it from receiving new contracts in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico disaster.
The country’s Environmental Protection Agency had cited a lack of business integrity in the wake of the fatal accident as its reason for preventing the oil major and its subsidiaries from bidding for contracts.