Business

Court bid for review of compensation rules lost by BP

06:56 am on 12 January 2014

BP has lost a bid for a reassessment of compensation paid to companies and coastal residents since by the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster in 2010.

An explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig 80km from New Orleans on 20 April, 2010, killed 11 men Oil flowed into the sea for 87 days until it was plugged.

BP reached an $US8.6 billion settlement in 2012, but later challenged the way the court calculated compensation for companies.

The ABC reports the US federal appeals court has ruled that district judge Carl Barbier was correct in rejecting a bid by BP in 2012 to require companies to prove that their losses were directly linked to the spill before getting a payment.

In a 48-page decision issued on Friday, a panel of the appellate court affirmed Judge Barbier's initial ruling in 2012.

"We cannot agree with the arguments raised by the objectors or BP," the document read, citing federal rules governing class-action lawsuits.

One of the judges, Emilio Garza, disagreed.