Oil giant BP has
asked a US court to halt payments from its settlement deal over the 2010 Gulf
of Mexico oil spill amid concerns about fraud control.
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 programme.
It had expected
payouts to total $7.8bn (£4.9bn), 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 US 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
programme.
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.
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