BP is to take a further $2.5bn (£1.87bn) hit as a result of the Deepwater Horizon accident, bringing the total cost of the environmental disaster to almost $62bn.

The latest after-tax non-operating charge will be taken in the company’s second quarter financial results to be formally announced on 26 July.

BP said the charge is expected to include a pre-tax non-operating charge associated with the oil spill of about $5.2bn. This would bring the total cumulative pre-tax charge relating to the Deepwater Horizon incident to $61.6bn, or $44bn after tax.

The company said that any further outstanding claims related to the 2010 spill in the Gulf of Mexico left over “will not have a material impact on the Group’s financial performance”.



Brian Gilvary, BP chief financial officer, put a positive gloss on the latest charge resulting from the accident in which 11 workers died and almost 5m barrels of oil were spilled.

“Over the past few months we’ve made significant progress resolving outstanding Deepwater Horizon claims and today we can estimate all the material liabilities remaining from the incident. Importantly, we have a clear plan for managing these costs and it provides our investors with certainty going forward.”

BP reached the main agreements to settle outstanding federal, state and local government claims arising from Deepwater Horizon a year ago. In the months since, BP said it had made “much further progress” in resolving outstanding claims.