BP Adviser: BP's $100 Mln Fund Payment Is A 'Goodwill Gesture'

16th Jun 2010 22:32

By Siobhan Hughes Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--BP PLC (BP, BP.LN)'s agreement to contribute $100 million to a fund for laid-off oil-services workers was "voluntary" and the oil company doesn't believe it is legally responsible for such payments, a BP adviser said on Wednesday. "This is a goodwill gesture made at the request of the president," the adviser said. "We made clear that we do not think this is a liability of the company," and U.S. President Barack Obama "asked if there was something we could do as a voluntary gesture." The comments came hours after the White House and BP reached a deal under which the oil company would contribute $20 billion to a spill-damage escrow fund. BP also agreed to pay another $100 million to a fund for oil-services workers laid off due to the Obama administration's six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling. U.S. Associate Attorney General Thomas J. Perrelli, who attended the meeting, was the principal negotiator for the government, the BP adviser said. Though the Justice Department has opened criminal and civil probes into the oil spill, the issue of fines and penalties didn't come up at the meeting. "This was explicitly not about fines, penalties, any enforcement action that the government might take," the BP adviser said. "This was about how to create a better, more effective claims process." On the fund for laid-off workers, the BP adviser said guidelines were still being developed to establish which workers would qualify. While the Obama administration has asked for it to cover workers laid off due to a deepwater-drilling moratorium, workers on shallow-water drilling rigs are also in a predicament due to uncertainty about when the Interior Department will approve new permits to drill wells in shallow waters. "The focus was clearly on oil-rig workers who have become unemployed as a result of this accident," the adviser said. The adviser said that "some work obviously will need to be done in further defining the scope of eligible recipients." On the issue of BP's financial strength, the adviser said it is important for policy makers to understand it is "critical" for BP to remain a "strong and viable company in order to live up to those obligations." The adviser said that "I do not believe that the administration needs persuasion of this." -By Siobhan Hughes, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6654; [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 16, 2010 17:32 ET (21:32 GMT)