Oil Spill Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico oil spill clean up and compensation costs created by the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig disaster has risen dramatically for BP by more than $2 billion for the month of August alone and now stands at $8 billion (£5.2 billion).
So far BP has made settlements on claims to oil spill affected victims of $399 million and the Gulf Coast Claims Facility that is now handling all of the incoming claims has said that it has paid out $38.5 million since taking over control.
BP has confirmed that since the middle of July when the leaking pipe was stopped that there had been no more oil leakages reported from the damaged well.
Plans to completely seal off the well by the end of this month are going well according to BP following the removal of the capping stack on Thursday which will now allow the company to fit a new-blow out preventer to replace the old unit which had failed.
Plans have now been put in place for the middle of September for the completion of the relief well drilling operation.
