BP has incurred $1.7 billion (£1.2bn) further costs in respect of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010 taking the total above $65 billion.
The oil and gas giant increased its estimate of the likely bill after the value of legal claims resolved in the latest quarter was significantly higher than expected.
The claims were decided under the Court Supervised Settlement Program which is handling around 400,000 cases related to the leak. This followed an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig in which 11 workers were killed.
A spokeswoman for the group told Reuters hundreds of outstanding claims have yet to be closed, raising the prospect of further charges.
However, BP said the settlement programme is winding down.
“With the claims facility’s work very nearly done, we now have better visibility into the remaining liability,” said chief financial officer Brian Gilvary, who reckons the company’s finances are in good shape.
“The charge we are taking as a result is fully manageable within our existing financial framework, especially now that we have the company back into balance at $50 per barrel.”
BP has sold a raft of non core assets in areas such as the North Sea to help meet the costs of the spill. The challenges it posed were compounded by the onset of the crude price plunge in 2014.
BMO Capital Markets analyst Brendan Warn said the last few remaining claims were likely to be the most complex and sizeable. He added: “We acknowledge the possibility that there might be further provisions in the next few quarters.”
In July 2016 BP said following significant progress in resolving outstanding claims it could reliably estimate all of its remaining material liabilities in connection with the incident. It estimated the bill would total $61.6bn before tax.
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