BP: Cost Of Response To Date Amounts To $2.65B

LONDON (Dow Jones)--BP PLC (BP.LN) said Monday that in the response to the MC252 oil well incident in the Gulf of Mexico, two systems continue to collect oil and gas flowing from the Deepwater Horizon's failed blow-out preventer (BOP) and transport them to vessels on the surface. MAIN FACTS: -To date, more than 80,000 claims have been submitted and almost 41,000 payments have been made, totaling more than $128 million. -To date amounts to $2.65 billion, including the cost of the spill response, containment, relief well drilling, grants to the Gulf states, claims paid, and federal costs. -It is too early to quantify other potential costs and liabilities associated with the incident. -On June 26, a total of 22,750 barrels of oil were collected or flared by the two systems and 52.9 million cubic feet of gas were flared. -Specifically, the lower marine riser package, or LMRP, containment system connected to the Discoverer Enterprise collected 14,730 barrels of oil, and the Q4000 flared an additional 8,020 barrels of oil. -To date, the total volume of oil recovered or flared by containment systems is 435,600 barrels. -Preparations continue for the next step in containment operations. -Work on the first floating riser containment system, which will be connected to the Helix Producer vessel, remains on schedule. -It is currently anticipated that this system will be available to begin first operations at the end of June or in early July. -The system is intended to provide additional oil containment capacity of approximately 20,000-25,000 barrels a day. -Together with the LMRP cap and Q4000 systems, the addition of this new system should increase total oil containment capacity to 40,000-50,000 barrels a day. -Plans are being developed for potential additional containment capacity and flexibility, including a second floating riser system and additional capacity through a new cap on the BOP. -These projects are currently anticipated to be available to begin operations around mid-July. -The first relief well, which started drilling May 2, has reached a measured depth of 16,546 feet and has successfully completed a second "ranging" run using specialist equipment inserted into the well to help more precisely locate the MC252 well. -Drilling and ranging operations will continue over the next few weeks as the well progresses towards the target intercept depth of 18,000 feet. -Once intercept has occurred, operations are expected to begin to kill the flow of oil and gas from the reservoir by pumping specialized heavy fluids down the relief well. -The second relief well, which started May 16, is at a measured depth of 12,038 feet. -Both wells are still estimated to take three months to complete from commencement of drilling. -Operations to skim oil from the surface of the water now have recovered, in total, 652,000 barrels (27 million gallons) of oily liquid. -In addition, a total of 275 controlled burns have been carried out to date, removing an estimated 238,000 barrels of oil from the sea's surface. -Shares closed Friday at 304.6 pence. -By Iain Packham, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-20-7842-9269; iain.packham@dowjones.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 28, 2010 02:14 ET (06:14 GMT)