BP asked U.S. court to halt Gulf settlement paymentsSeptember 24, 2013 - 16:02 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Oil giant BP has asked a U.S. court to halt payments from its settlement deal over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill amid concerns about fraud control, according to BBC News. The blast killed 11 workers and released an estimated four million barrels of oil into the gulf. It is the firm's latest move to stop or delay payments under a financial settlement program. It had expected payouts to total $7.8bn, but says this has been driven up by excessive fees and bogus claims. BP has faced about $42.4bn in charges since the disaster aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, which triggered the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. It has made two previous, unsuccessful attempts, to halt compensation payments. It now says all payments should be halted until the court-appointed claims administrator puts efficiency and accounting controls into place. This move has been recommended by former FBI director Louis Freeh, who has reviewed the payments program. "There is no assurance that dishonest and illegitimate claims are being detected and denied," said BP spokesman Geoff Morrell. "Payment of such claims would cause BP irreparable injury." The company believes the existing payout formula is too generous and compensates people who were not harmed. It is waiting for decisions by a federal appeals court on several challenges it has made to the settlement and its payment formula. BP says there is a risk that hundreds of millions of dollars in claims payments could be fraudulent. Top stories Yerevan has dismissed Turkey’s demand to shut down the Armenian nuclear power plant as “inappropriate”. Armenia will loan 2.9 billion drams to Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh), according to a draft government decision. The Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan has “strongly condemned” Armenia’s decision. Kerobyan has said that for the first time in the history of Armenia, the volume of foreign direct investments amounted to about $1 billion. Partner news | Get Started: An educational platform for young startuppers The Get Started program which operates in two phases is an important platform for young startuppers. Byblos Bank Armenia celebrates Students' Day with scholarship recipients YSU students who received scholarships from Byblos Bank Armenia gathered in a casual setting to meet with the Bank's CEO, Hayk Stepanyan. Azerbaijan extends Rune Vardanyan’s arrest by 5 months A court in Azerbaijan has extended the arrest of former Nagorno-Karabakh leader Ruben Vardanyan by five months. Armenia border residents dissatisfied with delimitation Residents Kirants are dissatisfied with the results of the delimitation of the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan. |