BP Plc’ share price up, must resume compensation payments for 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill according to court’s ruling

BP Plc must pay hundreds of millions of dollars as it may be forced to start over contentious compensation payments for the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010. The company was seeking a review of its 9.2 billion-dollar payments from the Supreme Court of the U.S., as its request to keep a temporary pause on some payments to businesses, which cant prove whether they were directly affected by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico four year ago, was rejected by the U.S. Court of Appeals.

Now the U.S. Supreme Court must decide whether to take on the case over the settlement. BP Plc made an official statement, revealing it was “disappointed” by the courts ruling, and also shared that it plans a second appeal to the Supreme Court.

One of the spokesmen of BP Plc – Mr. Geoff Morrell made an official e-mailed statement, which was cited by Bloomberg: “We are disappointed and will seek review by the U.S. Supreme Court of this ruling.”

In 2012 BP Plc signed an agreement that it initially estimated at 7.8 billion dollars, which it now argues to have been misinterpreted by the claims administrator Mr. Patrich Kuneau, who was appointed by the court. According to the settlement, businesses that were affected by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill got the opportunity to receive compensation for the damages. The company now argues that the misinterpretation of Mr. Kuneau helped him boost the price of the agreement to 9.2 billion dollars or even more.

Last October, the court suspended the payments for business losses after BP Plc pleaded that a large number of the claims were not legally justified. Earlier in May, the company said that it would be “irreparably harmed” in case it was convicted to resume the payments. BP Plc, however, was accused by the victims lawyers that it is suffering from “buyers remorse” and is trying to make its way out of the agreement, which now turns out to be more expensive than initially considered.

BP Plc was gaining 0.44% to trade at 506.41 pence per share by 12:30 GMT, marking a one year change of +4.92%.