BP plc (ADR) (BP) Warns of Rising Costs From Spill Settlement

In this week’s regulatory filing, the company said it has been analyzing the processing of recent claims to determine if they can be used to predict future claims, but concluded it can’t.

Excluding business claims that Juneau hasn’t received or processed yet, the company now estimates it will pay $7.7 billion to resolve the rest of the claims covered by the settlement.

“If BP is successful in its challenge to the court’s ruling, the total estimated cost of the settlement agreement will, nevertheless, be significantly higher than the current estimate of $7.7 billion because business economic loss claims not yet received or processed are not reflected in the current estimate and the average payments per claim determined so far are higher than anticipated,” the company said.

Barbier also is presiding over a non-jury trial designed to determine the causes of BP plc (ADR) (NYSE:BP)’s April 2010 well blowout and assign percentages of fault to the companies involved in the disaster, which killed 11 workers and spawned the nation’s worst offshore oil spill.

The trial, which opened Feb. 25 and is scheduled to resume Monday, could last several months if BP doesn’t settle separate claims by the federal government and Gulf states over environmental and economic damage from the spill.

The article BP Warns of Rising Costs From Spill Settlement originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Associated Press.

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