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BP has spent another $350,000 (£234,000) on the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster since Monday, taking the total cost to date up to $2.35bn (£1.57bn) and the number of people dealing with the response effort to some 37,000.The oil giant has paid over 39,000 of the 74,000 compensation claims filed worth nearly $126m following the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon well in April that killed 11 workers.At the start of the week BP said it had shelled out $2bn (£1.4bn) on the spill so far, including $105m paid out to settle 32,000 out of 65,0000 claims. A $20bn fund was set up last week, under pressure from the US government, to provide a pool of resources to satisfy future claims for damages resulting from the broken well.As well as the tens of thousands of people trying to save oily pelicans and clean dirty beaches, more than 4,500 vessels and some 100 aircraft are now engaged in the response effort.While BP is hoping it can stop more oil escaping using extra containment systems, it's only the two relief wells that have any hope of stopping the leak for good, and they won't be ready until August.BP, responsible for the worst environmental catastrophe ever to hit America, has recovered about 364,500 barrels of oil from its containment efforts and managed to skim around 610,000 barrels of oily liquid off the sea's surface.