BP PLC share price up, moves to have oil spill claims administrator replaced

BP Plc, one of the six oil majors, filed a motion with the New Orleans District Court yesterday, in an attempt to remove the court-appointed claims administrator for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill claims, saying he is biased.

According to the companys statement, Mr Patrick Juneau, Claims Administrator of the Court Supervised Settlement Program (CSSP), is both biased and incompetent, and should be replaced in order for the program to progress.

“The work of the CSSP is too important and Mr. Juneau’s failures are too numerous to allow him to continue in his position,” the company stated. “In order to restore the integrity of the claims program, the Court should replace him.”

BP said Juneau had previously advocated claimants in the program, disqualifying him as a “neutral”, adding that he even had explicitly stated before the court that he had not represented any claimants. Furthermore, his actions on the Deepwater Horizon claims program mirrored decisions he took on behalf of his prior clients.

The CSSP was launched in order to avoid individual claims and allow for the oil spill claims to be settled in large chunks, saving costs for both parties. BP estimates the cost of the settlements to exceed $9.2bn, after upping estimates a number of times now, while total costs of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill, the worst offshore spill in US history, now exceed $40bn.

Meanwhile, Halliburton, an oil-field services and equipment company which worked on the Deepwater Horizon rig, agreed to settle claims related to the spill for $1.1bn. The company was accused of gross negligence when providing the cementing of the well, which allowed for the explosion and oil spill to happen.

Transocean, which owned the rig, Haliburton, which helped build it, and BP, which operated it, are all awaiting US District Judge Carl Barbier to rule how much each company is liable for the disaster and the amount of damages it would have to pay. The decision is expected in the near days or weeks.

BP Pls was up 0.10% to trade at 477.78 pence (~$7.87), up 8.24% on an annual basis. As of the previous close, BP is valued at £88.32bn (~$145.51bn).