Gulf Oil Spill Claims Fund Has Paid $5 Billion

The Gulf Coast Claims Facility set up to handle claims from the BP oil disaster has paid out $5 billion after one year of operation.

It has paid 204,434 individual and business with a total of 359,441 claims.

Established by the Obama Administration and oil giant BP four months after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig in the Gulf of Mexico, the GCCF has spent the last year distributing monies from a $20 billion fund set up by oil giant BP.

Kenneth Feinberg, who ran the compensation fund for Sept. 11 victims, has run the oil spill claims facility. The claims process will remain in place until August 2013.

In its one-year report, the GCCF said it has been able to process 97 percent of the 947,892 claims it has received from 528,994 claimants from all 50 states and from residents of 36 countries.

Not all claims that have been processed have been paid. Of the 947,892 submitted, more than 300,000 have been denied, while others have offers pending or need further documentation.

“The GCCF has largely succeeded in its primary objective – to compensate those individuals and businesses who can demonstrate financial harm due to the Oil Spill,” the GCCF said in its report.

However, it acknowledges there have been some problems along the way. “The compensation program has not been perfect; but several midcourse corrections have been made in an effort to deal with the constructive criticism offered by victims of the spill, public officials, and others,” the report says.

As recently as last month, Attorney General Eric Holder said the fund was moving too slowly to settle claims, echoing complaints heard from Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood, other state officials and plaintiff lawyers. Holder also announced that an independent audit would be done of the GCCF.

The $5 billion which has been paid to date broken down by state is as follows:

• Alabama: 53,681 claimants paid totaling: $862,643,555.02
• Florida: 150,920 claimants paid totaling: $2,017,086,318.87
• Louisiana: 115,702 claimants paid totaling: $1,518,921,642.54
• Mississippi: 30,193 claimants paid totaling: $387,278,996.73
• Texas: 3,493 claimants paid totaling: $122,991,401.78
• Other: 5,452 claimants paid totaling: $139,803,394.42