"BP Plc has paid out more than $5 billion to 204,434 victims of last year's massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill, fund administrator Kenneth Feinberg said on Tuesday."
"The payouts amount to roughly 25 percent of the $20 billion fund, known as the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, which was set up a year ago following the April 2010 spill.
So far, 947,892 claims have been filed from all 50 U.S. states and residents of 36 countries. Nearly all of the successful claimants come from four states: Florida, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi.
'I point with pride to the progress we've made in the past year,' Feinberg said via telephone in a news conference on Tuesday. 'We are doing exactly what the (Obama) administration and BP intended when the fund was set up.'
In addition to the $5 billion paid to claimants, the fund has spent another $1.7 billion on cleanup efforts, government claims and other expenses, Feinberg said."
Moira Herbst reports for Reuters August 24, 2011.
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