BP says post-spill economy in south OK

WASHINGTON, July 11 (UPI) -- There are few cases in which there is justification for future compensation claims related to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, British energy company BP said.

Kenneth Feinberg, tapped by the White House to oversee payments from the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, has distributed nearly $4.5 billion to those claiming damages from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year.

The GCCF has processed nearly all of the 300,000 claims filed before May and is on pace to pay off the rest this summer, The Times-Picayune newspaper in New Orleans reported last month.

BP in its most recent estimate put the cost of the spill at more than $41 billion. The British energy company said in a letter to the GCCF, however, the economy along the gulf coast is recovering and there is "no basis" to assume claimants could incur future losses from the spill, The Daily Telegraph in London reports.

"The current economic data do not suggest that individual and business claimants face a material risk of future loss caused by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill," the 29-page letter read.

BP said, however, that oyster fisherman could get later payments.

Feinberg said in response that he welcomed BP's suggestions.

"We take all of the submissions 'under advisement,'" he was quoted as saying.