BP taps partner to pay oil spill costs

TOKYO, July 4 (UPI) -- BP PLC has asked its Japanese partner Mitsui & Co. to chip in $111 million to help the international firm cover costs of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Mitsui Oil Exploration Co., a subsidiary of Mitsui, owns 10 percent of the offshore oil fields in the area of the spill off the Louisiana coast, where the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon caught fire and sank April 20, killing 11 workers. Millions of gallons of oil continue to flow into the gulf daily.

Sources told The Yomiuri Shimbun that BP has spent more than $2.65 billion in efforts to control and collect the spewing oil and drill two relief wells to stop the spill. BP owns 65 percent of the oil field and the U.S. oil company Anadarko Petroleum Corp. has a 25 percent stake, the newspaper reported.

BP reportedly has asked Anadarko to pay $72 million.