BP Bills Japan¡¯s Mitsui 1.9 Billion Dollars For Gulf Spill

BP has billed a subsidiary of Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co. up to 1.9 billion dollars to cover costs from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the Japanese company said Tuesday.

The Japanese firm added that MOEX Offshore, wholly owned by a US unit of Mitsui Oil Exploration Co., had withheld payment amid uncertainty "as to how to calculate the total claimed amount".

It said it had not paid given "ongoing investigations to determine the facts and circumstances surrounding the incident and given there is uncertainty at this time as to whether MOEX Offshore will have to make payment". MOEX Offshore owns 10 percent of the Macondo project operated by BP, while US firm Anadarko Petroleum Corp. owns a 25 percent interest and BP owns the rest. The firm added it had asked BP for clarification of its total liability but the British company had not responded as of the end of October.

It added that it saw its share of the costs as being nearly half that demanded by BP.

The oil disaster began on April 20 when the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform exploded in the Gulf, 50 miles (80 kilometres) off the coast of Louisiana, killing 11 workers, and sank two days later.

The broken well was eventually plugged but not before it had gushed about 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf. The spill damaged hundreds of miles of fragile coast and caused BP's shares to collapse.

Robert Dudley, who replaced Tony Hayward as BP chief executive officer in October, said earlier this year that BP would "vigorously" pursue its partners for costs as it also sells off assets to pay for the spill.

The company has said it expects the Gulf of Mexico spill to cost it more than 32.2 billion dollars, taking into account compensation as well as clean up costs.

After receiving earlier invoices, Mitsui said it would withhold payments requested by BP to cover costs for the huge spill until the cause is fully determined.

A presidential commission concluded last week that a faulty cement mix was at the root of the April 20 Deepwater Horizon explosion, without explicitly blaming BP or contractor Halliburton.

Thursday's report was the commission's first set of findings that could ultimately determine who is liable for the accident that is still affecting the fragile Gulf wetlands.

Mitsui & Co. shares were off 1.03 percent in Tokyo trade Tuesday following news of the payment request.

BP last week said it was selling its interests in four Gulf of Mexico deepwater fields to Marubeni Oil and Gas of Japan for 650 million dollars just months after acquiring them.

The cash deal comes as BP looks to sell up to 30 billion dollars of assets by the end of 2011 to help meet its financial obligations from the oil spill.