British energy giant BP, accused by US lawmakers of putting savings over safety, said today it has spent $2 billion so far on cleaning up its huge Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
But investors, who drove down BP's share price more than 2 per cent today, are more concerned about the final tally of cleaning up the spill.
The company faces lawsuits, huge fines and damage claims that are expected to cost many billions more. BP agreed last week to set up a $20 billion compensation fund.
BP plans to raise cash from banks to ensure it has enough money on hand to pay for the clean-up, sources said today.
Banking sources said last week that it was seeking to arrange $7 billion from banks.
BP has said it will suspend dividend payments to its shareholders and increase the pace of asset sales to $10 billion this year to offset liabilities from the spill, which began after an explosion on an offshore oil rig on April 20th that killed 11 workers.
The spill, now in its 63rd day, has soiled the coastline of four US states, threatening tourism and fishing industries; battered BP's image; and tested President Barack Obama, who has come under fire over his handling of the crisis.
Seeking to keep the focus on the unfolding ecological disaster, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu today was taking mayors from 17 US cities to visit the slick-damaged Mississippi Delta, where oil has coated fragile marshlands, tarred wildlife and decimated fisheries.
"Educating the rest of the country is what's going to help us win this fight," said Tim Kerner, mayor of Lafitte, Louisiana, where the mayors gathered for a presentation from BP and the US Coast Guard.
"Every day it's a new oil spill," said Coast Guard Captain Roger Laferriere. "In previous spills, we always had a known quantity of oil."
Mr Obama, working to convince Americans he is on top of the crisis, cancelled a trip to Indonesia and Australia that had been set for last week to stay at home to deliver an address to Americans and castigate BP executives at the White House.
But the White House has been anxious that Americans do not think that the president's focus on the oil spill, the worst in US history, means he is taking his eye off other pressing issues, such as fixing the sputtering economy.
Mr Obama's official schedule this week focuses on selling healthcare reform, one of his signature achievements, managing the war in Afghanistan and talking to other major powers about the need for economic reforms at the G-8 summit in Canada.
Kenneth Feinberg, the administrator of the $20 billion fund to compensate victims for financial losses due to the spill, said today he will "err on the side of the claimant" in paying emergency relief.
"We've got to ease the burden on these folks in the Gulf," he told CNN.
Reuters