Oil giant BP has taken out adverts in leading US newspapers calling for a change in compensation payments in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
Adverts have been placed in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post today, ahead of an appeal hearing in the US.
The company is seeking to put a lid on compensation payments in the billions of dollars, which BP says could leave it ‘irreparably harmed’ after having previously agreed a compensation formula in a legal settlement.
The company says the compensation formula is being misinterpreted, a view with which the court-appointed claims adminstrator disagrees.
“Trial lawyers and some politicians are attempting to capitalise on this misinterpretation by encouraging the submission of thousands of claims for inflated losses, or losses that do not even exist,” BP said in its advertisement.
“Whatever you think about BP, we can all agree that it’s wrong for anyone to take money they don’t deserve. And it’s unfair to everyone in the Gulf – commercial fishermen, restaurant and hotel owners, and all the other hard-working people who’ve filed legitimate claims for real losses.”
In April, BP added $500million to its compensation payout estimate, which has been put in the region of $8billion. The company also set aside $42.2 billion for clean-up costs.
BP is looking to have the compensation process, which was upheld by a federal court in New Orleans, overturned on July 8.
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