BP Has Paid $104 Million in Claims to Date

We're almost two months into the BP oil spill. It is hoped that the oil flow will be stopped by August at the latest. This might seem like a long time, however it is also hoped that BP will be capturing 90% of the oil flowing into the Gulf by the end of June. President Barack Obama wishes to make that 90% into a 100%. I fully support that.

As of June 19, 2010 BP has paid $104 million to residents along the Gulf Coast. These payments are the result of thousands of claims filed against BP. These claims are being filed because many of the Gulf Coast residents make their living from fishing, shrimping and other water-related things such as tourism. As a result of the oil spill, they have not been able to do these things so they have not earned money. This is why BP is paying them, to make up for the money that they are losing.

As of June 19, BP has issued more than 31,000 checks to the people who filed claims. That is quite a lot of money, however it barely breaks the surface of the energy giant's massive funds.

This week would have been successful for BP if it hadn't been for their CEO Tony Hayward's blunder on Saturday. He went to a yacht race in England to watch is yacht, Bob, race against many other boats. This caused a lot of controversy, as after all, he has a job to get the oil spill cleaned up. He took a day off from this to watch a yacht race. Many in the Gulf Coast commented that they wished they "could take a day off the oil spill" as well, but they can't. I don't think it's very fair that Tony Hayward did this. It definitely won't add to his public face.

BP has received about 64,000 claims to date. A 1,000-member claim team is working around the clock to receive and process claims. There are 33 field offices set up in the States of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, and BP is accepting calls through an 800 number as well as accepting applications online. BP has received about 84,000 calls on the claims alone.

That's a lot of claims, however they do have the money to resolve them so I think they should do it as fast as possible.