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Claims may push BP’s spill bill to $90bn [USA]
BP is facing damages demands of more than $34bn from US states and local government over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, a figure that could lead to significant upward revisions of its potential bill for the Gulf of Mexico spill…The newly-detailed claims would imply a total bill of more than $90bn…However, BP said it considered the methods used to calculate the states’ claims, which include punitive damages and other ratcheting factors, to be “seriously flawed” and called the demands “substantially overstated”…It also does not include penalties it is expected to face under the US Clean Water Act. These alone could reach $21bn, if BP is found to have acted with gross negligence…A civil trial over the Deepwater Horizon accident is due to start in New Orleans in less than three weeks’ time.