BP has new target to avoid paying claims

BP has found a new target to avoid paying claims resulting from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster: court-appointed administrator Patrick Juneau.

Juneau evaluates the compensation claims. BP wants Federal Judge Carl Barbier to tighten his standards used for paying claims, asserting that some companies and individuals have been compensated for “fictitious and inflated losses.”

The British oil giant is upset that the claims, which they had budgeted to be $7.8 billion, now are estimated to increase to $9.2 million. Some analysts are predicting the claims may go as high as $15 billion.

I don’t think that $15 billion is too high. Back in 2010, economists were saying that BP would be paying out $20 billion.