US Gulf spill fund pays out $5b in first year

Victims of BP's disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico have received more than $5 billion in compensation since a fund was set up a year ago, officials said.
The money has gone to 204,434 individuals and businesses, mainly in the five-state Gulf region: Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF) said Tuesday.
The compensation fund was created four months after the April 2010 explosion on BP's Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf caused the biggest maritime oil spill in history.
Set up by the Obama administration and financed by BP, the independent $20 billion fund operates on behalf of BP to meet its US legal obligations to compensate victims.
The GCCF processed about one million claims in its first year of operation, the fund said in a report.
It noted conflicting views with BP over who should be compensated for damages.
"BP has often assumed public positions concerning claimant eligibility criteria and damage calculation methodologies directly at odds with the findings and determinations of the GCCF," the fund said.
In early July, BP appeared to be looking to limit the payouts, filing a document with the GCCF stating that "the current economic data do not suggest that individual and business claimants face a material risk of future loss caused by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill."