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BP puts oil leak bill at 3.5 billion dollars

12 July 2010 12:53 (UTC +04:00)

Baku - APA-Economics. The continuing oil leak caused by the April explosion of a Gulf of Mexico oil rig has cost BP 3.5 billion dollars (2.78 billion euro), the British petroleum giant said Monday, AFP reported.

The installation of a new cap to seal the massive leak, which began on Saturday, was "proceeding as planned", BP said in a statement.

"The cost of the response to date amounts to approximately 3.5 billion dollars, including the cost of the spill response, containment, relief well drilling, grants to the Gulf states, claims paid, and federal costs," it said.

By July 10, about 749,100 barrels of oil had been collected or flared by containment systems, it said.

Plans were meanwhile being developed "for additional containment capacity and flexibility that will ultimately increase capacity to 60,000-80,000 barrels per day".

Work on relief wells to intercept the original well continued, it said, with plans to "kill" the flow of gas and oil still on track for the first half of August.

"Although uncertainty still exists, the first half of August remains the current estimate of the most likely date by which the first relief well will be completed and kill operations performed," it said.

About 46,000 personnel, more than 6,400 vessels and dozens of aircraft were engaged in the response effort, BP said.