BP (NYSE:BP) Pays $767 Million to Florida So Far

So far in the state of Florida alone, BP (NYSE:BP) has paid out $767 million to individuals, businesses and governments, according to the energy giant.

BP said in a statement, "Of the $767 million BP has paid so far in the state of Florida, $577 million has gone directly to business and individuals through the claims process.

"The next largest amount, nearly $72 million, has gone to those working in the Vessels of Opportunity Program, [a program that] put fisherman and captains to work over the summer helping with oil recovery."

Other major payments made to Florida included that granted to tourism, where "$32 million has gone to help Florida's tourism industry. Several Panhandle communities used the tourism grants to put on weekend festivals. Most recently, Pensacola Beach hosted the De Luna Festival, which was extended a third day because of BP funding," added BP.

Claims continue to be made in Florida, and other Gulf states over the oil spill disaster.

Government Parasites Seeking BP (NYSE:BP) Fund Money

An increasing number of parasitical government entities are seeking to use the BP (NYSE:BP) escrow fund as a means to make up for budget shortfalls, rather than shrinking the size of government to manageable levels.

One such entity is Santa Rosa County School district, which may attempt to, along with other schools, prepare what are called Request For Proposals (RFP) to present to attorneys to see if any are interested in representing them on a contingency basis.

One wise member of the school board, Ed Gray III, suggested it's very questionable as to whether or not the Santa Rosa School District had in fact been damaged from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Gray said, “Everyone knows Escambia County took a big hit all the way around, and they have a claim, probably, for their school district. But as far as the other counties, I am not sure they were damaged to the point of needing to file a claim.

“The major impact to us will probably be in sales tax revenues. Our financial officer has told us the sales tax revenues we have received so far are about the same as last year.”

So in a period of ongoing recession, sales tax revenues are the same, which implies poor management on the part of the county in controlling costs.

With that being the reality, it's strange to see them think they can apply for BP funds when they haven't done any damage to the county.

Maybe they should focus on limited government and reducing taxes to spur economic growth, rather than new ways of siphoning money from the BP fund and those who really were hurt by the oil spill.

BP (NYSE:BP) Pays $18.7 Million to Omega Protein (NYSE:OME) for Gulf Damages

BP (NYSE:BP) paid out via its Gulf Coast Claims Facility $18.7 Million to Omega Protein (NYSE:OME), and Omega said the should get paid more as the claims process works its way out.

Omega Protein sells fish meal and fish oil products in the United States which it derives from menhaden, a wild herring species found in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as on the Atlantic coast.

They filed their claim against BP based on a smaller catch of fish in the Gulf and the resultant loss of revenue and earnings.

Omega closed Wednesday at $6.13, gaining $0.24, or 4.07 percent.

BP (NYSE:BP) Assets in Gulf Collateral for Compensation Fund

BP (NYSE:BP) said they'll back up their $20 billion claims fund by using assets in the Gulf of Mexico as collateral. The fund is being used to pay for legitimate claims from damage arising from the oil spill.

Included in the collateral are oil and gas production at a variety of Gulf projects, including Mad Dog, Thunder Horse, Atlantis, Great White, Na Kika, Mars and Ursa.

The above include royalty interest in the oil and gas production.

Lamar McKay, chairman and president of BP America Inc. and BP's Gulf Coast Restoration Organization, said, "The pledging of these assets underscores our commitments to the trust which we set up to pay all legitimate claims arising from the tragedy."

The fund is expected to continue paying out over a four-year period to claimants.

BP (NYSE:BP) Paying Feinberg and Firm Cool $850,000 Monthly to Run Compensation Fund

In an effort to be more transparent, Kenneth Feinberg revealed the payment he and his firm - Feinberg Rozen LLP - are receiving from BP (NYSE:BP) to run the $20 billion compensation fund to pay victims of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Feinberg said the firm is being paid $850,000 monthly to manage the claims portion of the fund, which started when he accepted the job in the middle of June.

At this time Feinberg hasn't disclosed what he personally is getting for running the fund, but that doesn't seem to be relevant; how could it be?

Someone has to run the fund. And unless someone is going to donate several years of their life for nothing to run it, they're going to get paid for it. Already there's heavy pressure on Feinberg and his team to make things run smoother and quicker, and he's taken a lot of abuse from meetings around the Gulf region with victims waiting for their money.

There's also the fraud factor, which has in fact been one of the major impediments to running the claims process quicker, and this is coming from those who have legitimate claims, but are inflating them to extraordinary levels, which all causes the need to examine documents more closely, if there are any documents at all.

In other words, a lot of the alleged public outcry is manufactured by many who are trying to game the system and are angry their attempts aren't successful.

The implication that Feinberg and his team work for BP means something negative simply makes no sense. It doesn't matter who would've been chosen to run the claims process, they were going to get paid. How is that an issue? How is it even a story?

As far as the compensation to the firm, the $850,000 monthly payment will continue through 2010, and then will be reviewed at that time to make decisions on a contract going forward.

The fund is scheduled to operational for four years.

BP (NYSE:BP) Compensation Fund Slowed by Fraud

The BP (NYSE:BP) compensation fund, which the claimant portion is administered by Kenneth Feinberg, has been demonized because of the alleged slow payments and amounts being handed out.

As the story emerges though, the frustration, while in many cases is legitimate, has been worsened by many who are attempting to game the system by getting paid much more than actual damages, and in many cases, some who don't qualify for damages at all.

That more than anything has been the reason for the slow process, and because there are legitimate claims suffering as a result, makes it hard for Feinberg to defend, because it gives the appearance of not paying out what is owed for legitimate claims.

Major problems in getting the fund to move faster, as mentioned, are outright fraud, requests for money far beyond damages, and absolutely no proof of suffering losses at all.

What would probably stem a lot of this is for the Justice Department or law enforcement to step in and arrest and charge some of those commiting the fraud in order to get the process moving forward.

There are some legitimate complaints related to the fund, but most of them come from those trying to get money they don't deserve, and worse, clogging up the system because of the time it takes to confirm one way or the other if they qualify.

The enormity of the fraud has caused Feinberg and his team to have to check closely in order to make determinations. That's a good thing in the sense of having enough money to pay for legitimate claims.

If Feinberg were to allow the outrageous claims to go forward, it would result in BP paying out damages to those who weren't harmed by the consequences of the oil spill, and also cause them to pay far more than they would have had to.

Someone needs to step in and let those making fraudulent claims know they are being watched and could go to jail for what amounts to theft.

BP (NYSE:BP) Won't Pay Shallow-Water Drilling Workers

With the Obama administration's disastrous oil moratorium in the Gulf, many workers have been taking a beating, and BP (NYSE:BP) has rightly stated at this time they're not going to pay for those out of work because of Obama's policies.

It's not that the oil moratorium explicitly stops drilling in shallow water, it's the fallout from the slowing permitting process which is the culprit behind hundreds of lost jobs in that segment of the industry.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D, La.) blames the Obama administration for the job losses, saying it's a "de facto moratorium" on new drilling permits which is behind it.

Landrieu added, "It may be the federal government that has to step up and provide relief to the shallow-water rig workers that they've put out of business."

Responding to a request by Landrieu to pay for the shallow-water workers, BP said through fund spokesman Mukul Verma, that after paying for deepwater workers starting in the early part of 2011, there probably won't be enough money left over for shallow-water workers.

BP (NYSE:BP) Offers Gulf Assets as Collateral for Escrow Fund

BP (NYSE:BP) said today its assets in the Gulf of Mexico will used as collateral for the $20 billion escrow fund set aside to pay for claims.

The total costs for the oil giant so far are $11.2 billion, with $806 million paid out in over 44,000 claims from businesses and individuals hurt from the oil spill.

Part of the collateral for the fund will include royalty interest from oil and gas production from projects in the region, including Na Kika, Mars, Mad Dog and Thunder Horse, among others.

Lamar McKay, chairman and president of BP America Inc. said, “The pledging of these assets underscores our commitments to the trust which we set up to pay all legitimate claims arising from the tragedy.”

The assets were offered as collateral because of the uncertainty of oil prices holding strong. New CEO Bob Dudley said if oil prices hold, the company should continue to perform strongly and shouldn't have any problems meeting obligations.

If oil prices do fall, the collateral would be in place to back up any shortfall.

Dudley is confident enough to believe there shouldn't be a problem in bringing the dividend back to shareholders soon, although that is a decision of the board of directors of the company.

BP (NYSE:BP) Negotiating with Feds Over Oil Fines

BP (NYSE:BP) has entered into negotiations with the Obama administration over coming to some type of settlement over fines related to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

According to Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., his staff got wind of the discussions when working on legislation related to the oil spill which would keep money from fines paid out by BP in the Gulf region.

Unsurprisingly, the real battle is over whether or not BP will be labeled as being grossly negligent in relationship to the spill.

The problem with that is no study, other than the one conducted by BP, has been conducted to find out the absolute reason behind the accident.

So how could the government be battling over something that there is no conclusion made yet? The only reason BP is in their sights is no company related to the spill has the capital to pay the fines other than them. Of course they also had the largest stake in the well, but that has nothing to do with culpability.

It may surprise people, but BP is in the driver's seat in regard to this issue. If the government doesn't come to an agreement with them, all BP has to do is litigate, and that would take years, essentially holding up any fines being paid out until then, and with no guarantee the government would win the case (in reference to BP being considered grossly negligent).

Just under the Clean Water Act, BP could pay out up to $21 billion. It's doubtful it will ever come to that, as that wouldn't include other fines and the money they'll have to pay out from the hundreds of lawsuits.

Even with the size of BP, they just aren't big enough to pay that kind of money out, which doesn't include the $20 billion escrow fund which has the claims part of the fund administered by Kenneth Feinberg.

There should be a settlement of some sort, but it will depend on how far the Department of Justice wants to take it. If they ask for too much, it may leave BP few options.

Again, the problem is there are no conclusions yet made as to the cause of the disaster, and until that is investigated and discovered, it's hard to see the government has to stand on; at least concerning the decision on whether or not BP was grossly negligent, which is the crux of this particular part of the fine process.

BP (NYSE:BP) Fund Administrator Feinberg Says Cleanup Wages Won't be Deducted

Kenneth Feinberg, administrator of the BP (NYSE:BP) compensation fund, said he'll waive the previous requirement for those making claims to the fund of deducting wages earned from BP by helping with the oil spill cleanup.

This has been a point of contention for some time, and it seemed at the beginning there would be no concession at all, but the growing antagonism toward Feinberg and the slow pace of the fund may have had a part in Feinberg's decision.

According to Feinberg, fisherman will be specifically helped by the decision, who helped with the cleanup when they weren't able to fish.

So far the fund has paid out over $240 million on 68,000 claims.

Lawyers Pushing for Quicker BP (NYSE:BP) Trials

In court filings today, lawyers for alleged victims of the BP (NYSE:BP) oil spill said the first test-case trials should begin in about a year.

Lawyers have been seeking quicker trials for the claimants, while BP and others like Transocean (NYSE:RIG) have wanted to wait to see what happens with the compensation fund, which claims portion is headed by Kenneth Feinberg.

U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans, who is presiding over the trials, was told by lawyers pretrial exchanges of information should begin in October.

BP pushed back saying in it's filing that it's premature at this time to demand early trials, saying it's "overly ambitious."

There are about 400 lawsuits related to the oil spill which Judge Barbier is overseeing.

BP (NYSE:BP), Halliburton (NYSE:HAL), Transocean (NYSE:RIG) Say Gulf Victims Have No Right to Sue Yet

In a filing with the court, BP (NYSE:BP), Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) and Transocean (NYSE:RIG) say the numerous individuals and businesses may not have the right to sue the companies yet over the Gulf oil spill.

According to the court papers, BP and the others said they believe the alleged victims should have to take their claims to the $20 billion compensation fund before bringing a lawsuit against them.

Obviously the strategy of the oil companies is to push the lawsuits toward the escrow fund to deal with the matter in order to decrease the growing number of them.

Most of the types of lawsuits they're talking about are those where claims of economic losses are involved, especially workers and businesses.

The fund, administered by Kenneth Feinberg, would have 90 days to accept or reject a claim, which at that time the claimants could proceed with a lawsuit.

With things moving into the discovery stage and requests for documents and electronic communications being made, the oil companies said the question of the right to sue needs to be decided before they provide all the documentation to plaintiffs.

While the elimination of lawsuits looks like it's in the best interests of the oil companies, in truth, when you consider the fees by lawyers and amount of time it takes for many of these lawsuits to be played out, most of the alleged victims would be far better off taking the money from the escrow fund if they qualify, rather than pursuing lawsuits.

BP's (NYSE:BP) Bizarre Claims Czar Going to Cave in to Criticism?

It's one thing to attempt to improve the process to pay out claims to alleged victims of the BP (NYSE:BP) oil spill, it's another thing to pay compensation to people for money they've already received, which is what government claims czar Kenneth Feinberg is taking "under advisement."

This is the problem when someone from the government is appointed to oversee money.

The problem centers around claimants who say the money they were paid while working cleaning up the Gulf for BP shouldn't be subtracted from the claims they are seeking.

Feinberg responded, "I'm taking it under advisement. The last time I said, no way, I'm deducting it. Now, it's open for discussion."

It doesn't matter what the actual damage was to the claimants, since when do people get paid for work by a company and then not have it subtracted from claims? It's outrageous.

In other words, when they were getting paid to work, they weren't suffering from being victims of the situation. why would BP have to pay them, or why would Feinberg even say he's going to take it under advisement.

This isn't his money. And while he has authority to pay out legitimate claims, it's improbable he has a right to make these types of decisions, even though he seems to say he does.

Problems with the BP compensation fund aren't whether or not BP is going to have to pay without subtracting money they've already paid, the problem is the process is taking too slow, and alleged discrepancies in what is perceived as similar circumstances are what are making people the most angry.

What about the victims who didn't work for BP and are going to receive the same as those who did work for BP under similar circumstances. How could Feinberg justify paying more to those who already got paid and received compensation?

Hopefully Feinberg won't cave on this, and will hold to his guns. People aren't victims while they were getting paid. Any payment already made should be subtracted from the claims being made.

If they aren't, it's doubtful it would be even legal. That would be like someone getting paid to work, but then collecting unemployment at the same time, while others on unemployment only get the unemployment. This doesn't make any sense, and doing it to placate those attempting to game the system shouldn't be allowed, no matter how hard they scream.

They're playing the victim card too far here, as they weren't victims while they were getting paid to work. How hard is that to understand?

BP (NYSE:BP) Claimants: Take Your Money and Run

While the victims of the BP (NYSE:BP) spill are seemingly faced with a difficult decision to make, I don't think it's that hard: they should just take the claims money and run.

That's not necessarily true about large corporations or businesses in this case, who may benefit from lawsuits and have the money and time to wait things out.

But for individuals and small businesses, it makes little sense to file a lawsuit, hire lawyers, and wait for years in hopes of getting a bigger payout.

And even if they get a bigger payout, the amount will probably simply be transferred to the bank account of a law firm, so what value is there in that?

There's not that much money at stake for individuals and small businesses to make it worthwhile pursuing a bigger pay day, and the stress of going through years of litigation aren't worth it.

The opportunity to make that decision will start in November in relationship to the escrow fund, which is administered by Kenneth Feinberg on the claims side.

BP's (NYSE:BP) Norway Manager Not Aware of North Sea Sales

Conflicting reports have emerged concerning BP's (NYSE:BP) alleged interest in selling North Sea assets, along with a report over the weekend in the Sunday Times they were increasing their asset sales target from $30 billion to $40 billion.

Rebecca Wiles, who is BP's Managing Director for Norway, said she wasn't "aware" that there were any plans in place to sell North Sea assets of BP to help raise the $30 billion they've mentioned as their target in the past concerning liabilities and costs to clean up the region.

Wiles said concerning North Sea asset sales, “I’m not aware of us lining up any assets in the North Sea. We’re a growing business in Norway.”

As far as the increasing of the target number from $30 billion to $40 billion, Wiles added she hadn't heard anything about that either.

Being in Norway, it's possible Wiles isn't in the loop on these things, so it may or may not be important as to the actual plans BP may be initiating.

BP (NYSE:BP) Becoming Government Piggy Bank?

The number of requests and the content of those requests are becoming so wide and large, it's becoming hard for BP (NYSE:BP) to be able to meet those demands, and they said if if they are banned from receiving permits to drill in the Gulf.

A bill which includes an amendment targeting BP, which would ban any company from receiving permits to drill on the Outer Continental Shelf if they have received fines of over $10 million or more in relationship to the Clean Air or Clean Water Acts within a period of seven years, or had an accident which resulted in over 10 deaths.

The only company in the world that qualifies to be banned is BP.

BP has done far more than required by law, and they've done it, for the most part, voluntarily. To saddle them with these restrictions won't just hurt BP, but will hurt those who qualify for legitimate relief, as well as fines and lawsuits against the company which they will have to pay out for.

Some people think the $20 billion put aside in the escrow fund by BP was something they legally had to do, but it was voluntary, although obviously were pressured by the Obama administration to do it.

They probably would have done something similar anyhow, but the point is they didn't have to.

What is more relevant is the $100 million the contributed to a foundation to pay for the workers who lost their jobs because of the Obama moratorium. That's why Obama doesn't worry too much about the situation, as BP is paying for it, or at least supporting a huge portion of it.

I wonder if those workers are getting unemployment and still raking in a bunch of money from BP? An investigation should be done to see if that's the case.

They've voluntarily paid out millions for advertising campaigns to the five Gulf states, and Florida even did better from tourism than last year from the free advertising.

Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, is now asking for $173 million to help promote, test and certify the seafood from the Gulf. Where will it all end?

There is also the $500 million they're paying out to a 10-year research program to study how the oil spill impacted the region.

BP executives are grownups, so I don't feel sorry for them, but they're allowing themselves to be bullied to the extreme, and Obama and others have said it's in the best interests of the Gulf and its people to have a healthy BP. And that's the truth.

A line has to be drawn somewhere, and though some have pointed out that BP has a lot of assets they could sell to raise the funds, that has absolutely nothing to do with it.

Every time BP sells off assets, it's losing revenue which could be used to pay for ongoing Gulf issues.

So it's not as simple as selling assets to raise money, it's what it does to BP over the long haul that matters. And if they're weakened so much they can't pay, it's because of politicians and their own leaders who are too cowered to draw a line in the sand. It's past time for them to do it if they're going to not only survive, but pay for the liabilities incurred from the Gulf oil spill.

Feinberg Say $10 Million Paid in BP (NYSE:BP) Claims

In the first week since launching the BP (NYSE:BP) compensation fund, claims administrator Kenneth Feinberg said almost $10 million was paid out in emergency payments to residents of the Gulf Coast region.

So far, 1,935 emergency claims have been made, primarily for lost profits or earnings to individuals and businesses. The majority of payments were no higher than $5,000, and some dropping as low as a penny.

For those wanting to finalize their claims and bypass litigation, there are over a 1,000 people, according to the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, where the individuals or businesses will have to waive the right to sue BP if they are to receive the payment. At this time no final claims have been paid.

Over 29,000 claims are now under review, and the agency said only one has been denied so far.

Louisiana residents are leading the list for emergency claims, as they took the heaviest hit from the oil spill. They collectively have received close to $4 million, while Florida is next with $2.4 million.

BP (NYSE:BP) Compensation Fund Launches Today, Feinberg Ready

The new compensation or escrow fund, now officially named the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, has launched today, and parameters are in place for claimants to make a decision on whether to accept or decline what is offered them.

Fund administrator Kenneth Feinberg said, "These guidelines are the result of many town hall meetings throughout the Gulf, listening to the people affected by this disaster."

The only ones really making any significant noise about the fund going forward are trial lawyers who see their 30 percent of the money going to the claimants instead of them.

President of the American Association for Justice, Gibson Vance said on Friday, "...it would be detrimental to claimants if they are forced to accept final payments before the full impact of the spill is realized."

In reality, they would come out ahead. Take away the 30 percent the lawyers would get, and why would claimants extend things out to make BP pay the utmost (assuming that even happens) when they can get their payment now when they need it.

The only people it would really be detrimental to would be the lawyers who have had their greedy eyes lowered because the majority of businesses and people will realize it makes little sense to wait longer to get a higher payment that will only benefit the lawyers and not them.

There could possibly be a few cases which that would be different, but it would have to be unique for it to overcome the 30 percent fee the lawyers will enjoy.

Feinberg has already said he's going to be generous with the fund, and probably will be, so there's very little incentive for victims of the oil spill to wait for a bigger pay day that in the vast majority of cases will never come, and if it does, will make the wallets of the lawyers fatter, not theirs.

BP (NYSE:BP): Escrow Solutions To Be Discussed at Meeting

Ken Feinberg, in charge of BP's (NYSE:BP) escrow fund has planned a public meeting in Pensacola, Florida to discuss escrow solutions. Many residents as well as business owners are planning on attending, with many questions on exactly how the fund will be handled. Even though it is open to the public a reservation is required.

One of the business owners planning on attending is Mike Pinzone. He says he's already lost over $250,000 from the lack of Summer business. BP has reimbursed him for only about 20 percent. If they don't get some sort of relief soon, around 60 to 70 percent of boardwalk businesses will have to shut down and won't be around next year.

"I just would like the opportunity to speak face to face with him. To get an appointment with him when he's ready, sit down, finish this thing. Stroke me a check and I'll be done. I don't want to beg for money every week, every month," said Pinzone.

This is Feinberg's second visit to Pensacola.

BP (NYSE:BP) Helped by Lower Taxes from Cleanup Costs

Something many people don't think about is the lower taxes BP (NYSE:BP) will enjoy from paying out the cleanup costs related to the Gulf oil spill.

Although it will be attacked by some, in a sense this is good news, as BP needs to survive, and even thrive, if they're going to be able to take care of their responsibilities in the matter.

So the $20 billion escrow fund will probably be a tax strategy for the oil giant over the next four years, as they pay out billions throughout the next several years to claimants.

This will be true in the U.S. and in Britain as well.

Depending on who you're listening to, the cleanup costs of BP, say if they were $60 billion, would result in about $20 billion in tax deductions over time, if you assume the 33 percent tax rate they paid out in 2009.

In the U.S. and focusing on the escrow fund, BP won't be able to take deductions until people are actually compensated. In other words, if they pay about $5 billion a year into it, they won't necessarily get tax deductions on that. If $3.5 billion were paid out for the tax year, that is what they would be able to take deductions on, not the entire amount.

What will raise a few eyebrows is the fact it is those receiving the money from BP who will end up paying taxes, as they're not exempt, as the government will consider it income, whether it's for a business or an individual.

That means money BP pays out will benefit them from a tax perspective, and the government gets a lot of that loss back from taxing the businesses and individuals receiving it.