BP has asked a federal judge to delay a second round of oil spill payments to seafood workers, arguing that there are still problems within the compensation program.
In a Monday (20 October) filing in U.S. District Court in New Orleans, the British oil giant said "at some point" there should be a second round of up to USD 500 million in payments to workers hurt by the spill. But the company said those payments cannot start now.
BP argued that moving forward would improperly speed up the process and allow error and fraud reported in the initial round of payments to be "perpetuated and compounded."
Plaintiffs' lawyers oppose BP's attempts to delay the payments. They argue BP is using a few isolated claims of fraud to try and upend a program that is working properly for the vast majority of seafood workers.
