New Orleans, LA – More than 1,000 claimants have received around $27 million in the two weeks since a court-supervised administrator took over the processing of claims spawned by the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico from BP PLC's $20 billion compensation fund.
A statement Friday by Patrick Juneau, the new claims administrator, also says nearly 5,000 new claims have been filed since the process shifted from the Gulf Coast Claims Facility to the court on March 8.
The transition is part of a settlement agreement between BP and lawyers representing more than 100,000 individuals and businesses. The parties will ask U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier to give his preliminary approval to the settlement next month.
BP estimates it will pay out $7.8 billion through the settlement, but the deal is uncapped.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)