Transocean profits from claim

Transocean, the owner of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, has made a $270m (£182m) profit from insurance payouts for the disaster, the Times reports.

The “accounting gain” arose because the $560m insurance policy Transocean took out was greater than the value of the rig itself. Transocean has already received a cash payment of $401m with the rest due in the next few weeks.

The payout will more than cover the $200m that Transocean expects to pay to survivors and their families and for higher insurance costs.

Clean up will cost $30bn

The total cost of the clean-up and compensation could reach $30bn, according to some estimates. Transocean said that virtually all of that must be covered by BP and two smaller partners, Anadarko Petroleum and Mitsui of Japan.

In a stock exchange filing, Transocean said that BP was contractually obliged to take “full responsibility for and defend, release and indemnify us from any loss, expense, claim, fine, penalty or liability for pollution or contamination”. Newman added: “Our industry has a long history of contract sanctity and we expect BP to honour that.”