BP Plc today said expenditure on the devastating Gulf of Mexico oil spill has gone up to $2.35 billion, less than a week after pegging the cost at $2.1 billion.
According to BP, the latest figure of $2.35 billion includes the cost of the spill response, containment, relief well drilling, grants to the Gulf states, claims paid, and federal expenses.
In signs of mounting woes for the energy major, the number of claims over the oil spill has climbed to a staggering 74,000 against the earlier estimate of 65,000.
On June 21, the energy entity had pegged spill-related costs at $2 billion, up from $1.4 billion in the previous week.
"To date, almost 74,000 claims have been filed and more than 39,000 payments have been made, totalling almost $126 million," BP said in a statement.
Shares of BP plunged seven per cent to 302.35 pence in early trade on the London Stock Exchange.
Coming under fire from the US administration for not doing enough to stop the oil spill and manage the fallout, BP earlier this month had announced a $20 billion fund to meet obligations arising out of the disaster.
Amid the rising costs and problems, BP has cautioned that it is too early to quantify other potential costs and liabilities associated with the incident.
Apart from difficulties in stopping the spill, which is leaking thousands of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico every day, BP is grappling with resistance from a partner with regard to sharing the responsibility for the disaster.
BP noted that as many as 37,000 personnel, as well as 4,500 vessels and some 100 aircraft, are now engaged in the response effort.
"Work continues to collect and disperse oil that has reached the surface of the sea, to protect the shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico and to collect and clean up any oil that has reached shore," the statement said.
The disaster was caused by an explosion in April on the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico, which claimed 11 lives.