The cost of cleaning-up the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico has reached $4 billion, British Petroleum said in a press release on Monday.
"The cost of the response to date amounts to approximately $3.95 billion, including the cost of the spill response, containment, relief well drilling, grants to the Gulf states, claims paid, and federal costs," BP said.
To date, the company has received almost 116,000 claims from residents of the Gulf Coast and made over 67,500 payments, totaling $207 million.
BP said the clean-up operations have recovered a total of approximately 807,143 barrels (33.9 million gallons) of oil.
"In addition, a total of 408 controlled burns have been carried out to date, removing an estimated 261,904 barrels of oil (11 million gallons) from the sea's surface," the company said.
Officials in charge of the clean-up said the oil continues to leak from the seabed near the stricken BP well, which was capped last week.
On June 16, BP announced an agreed package of measures, including the creation of a $20 billion escrow account to satisfy certain obligations arising from the oil and gas spill.
BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in late April, causing the worst oil spill in the history of the United States.
MOSCOW, July 19 (RIA Novosti)
