BP Gulf Oil Spill Update – Oil Executives Agree To $20 Billion Spill Claim Fund

BP Gulf Oil Spill Update

BP oil executives have agreed to pay $20 billion to a government managed fund that will pay compensation to businesses affected by the oil spill

The New York Times is reporting that The White House and top executives of the energy giant BP have tentatively agreed that the oil company will pay about $20 billion over several years into an independently controlled fund to pay compensation to people and businesses harmed by the immense oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The fund would be overseen by Kenneth Feinberg, the prominent lawyer who ran the compensation fund for victims of the Sept. 11 terror attacks and is the government’s special master for executive pay under the TARP program. President Obama demanded the creation of such a fund in his national address about the oil spill Tuesday evening, and met with company execcutives at the White House on Wednesday.

Businesses affected by the BP gulf oil spill gave been affected across the entire Gulf of Mexico – from Louisiana and now into Florida. Businesses such as hotels, real estate, fisherman, and other Gulf dependent markets, have all been greatly affected by the continual gush of oil from the BP pipeline.

Hotels have been reporting that guests have been canceling reservations on a continual basis since the crisis began. And fisherman have actually been hired by BP to use their fishing nets to capture oil from the gulf waters instead of trying to catch fish – which is not even realistic at this point because of the crisis.