The man who has paid out billions of dollars to victims of the massive 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill has been formally relieved of his duties, and a federal judge has set up a new process to let more people and businesses collect some of their money immediately. Yessterday's order by US District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans follows a March 2 agreement in principle for BP Plc (BPL) to pay claims by a group of plaintiffs estimated to total more than 100,000, at a cost of about US$7.8 billion.
The order calls for a new administrator to handle claims from the US$20 billion Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF), replacing the lawyer Kenneth Feinberg. That fund had been set up to compensate fishermen, hotel owners, property owners and others for losses from the April 20, 2010, explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and subsequent oil spill. The disaster killed 11 people and unleashed an estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
