BP spill cost tops £5bn

3rd Sep 2010 07:02

BP's bill for cleaning up after the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has hit $8bn (£5.2bn), up over £1bn in less than a month, and the relief well is not expected to intercept the broken MC252 well for a couple of weeks.It's spent the money on the spill response, containment, relief well drilling, the "static kill" operations and claims. When the company updated on 9 August, the disaster had cost it a mere $6bn (£3.9bn).The success of the so-called "static kill" to stop oil leaking from the seabed was confirmed a month ago, but bad weather during the hurricane season has delayed progress on a relief well.An attempt is now underway to try and replace the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) drill rig's failed blow-out preventer (BOP) with the DDII rig's BOP so work can resume.The relief well is at a measured depth of 17,909 feet and, depending upon weather conditions, is expected to hit the original well in the middle of this month.Meanwhile, the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF), which is now dealing with claims for compensation, paid out $38.5m on 4,900 of the 42,000 claims it's received. BP had already coughed up $399m to cover 127,000 claims.The firm has already put $20bn in an escrow account to meet obligations arising from the disaster and is fast selling assets to beef up its balance sheet.Earlier this week, it raised more than $400m (£260m) through the sale of two of its interests in Malaysia, while last month it raised $5bn (£3.2bn) through a syndicated bank loan.The head of Russian energy giant Gazprom, Alexei Miller, said today that it might consider buying some of BP's assets in the former Soviet republic Azerbaijan if BP were willing to sell them.'We would consider this if there is such an offer,' he said, according to Reuters.