HOUSTON — A federal appeals court gave BP a partial victory on Wednesday by ordering a lower court judge to reconsider his interpretation of a settlement with claimants who filed billions of dollars of claims against the oil company after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster.

In a divided opinion, the majority found that the formula that measured a potential loss needed to be clarified. The third judge argued in a dissent that BP was trying to change the rules it had already agreed to.

BP has repeatedly complained about the claims process, arguing that the program’s administrator, Patrick Juneau, was approving fabricated payments for business economic losses based on an unsound interpretation of an agreement the company reached with victims last year.