Oil group lodges appeal to the US supreme court after finding financial awards vastly exceed its expectations

BP last night mounted a last ditch attempt to limit the costs of its settlement for the victims of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill by lodging an appeal to the US supreme court to make a final ruling.

Earlier this week the British oil group lost an argument at the fifth circuit appeal court of New Orleans that compensation money was being spent on businesses not directly affected by the environmental damage caused by the Deepwater Horizon.

BP originally anticipated that it would have to pay $7.8bn (£4.6bn) under a court settlement only to find the financial awards vastly exceeding this figure, partly as a result of what it believes are inappropriate claims.

"No company would agree to pay for losses that it did not cause, and BP certainly did not when it entered into this settlement BP will continue to fight to return the settlement to its original, explicit, and lawful purpose – the compensation of claimants who suffered actual losses due to the spill," it said in a statement.

BP has been spurred on the fact that only eight of the 13 judges in the appeal court accepted the case against BP with some of the others making clear they strongly disagreed.

"The dissenting opinions emphasize that the issues raised by BP 'present questions of exceptional importance,' reflect a deep divide in approaches among the federal appellate courts, and merit supreme court review," the oil group added in its statement.

BP is still waiting to hear a final court judgement on whether it acted with "gross negligence" over theblowout, as the department of justice has alleged. BP strongly denies the accusation. A ruling against BP would trigger many more billions of dollars in fines.