Almost all BP spill claims are correct, audit finds

More than 99 percent of the claims processed under BP’s settlement from its 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill are correct, an independent audit found.

The findings bolster Patrick Juneau, who was appointed by a federal court to oversee millions of dollars of settlements meant to businesses and individuals affected by the Deepwater Horizon spill.

{mosads}But they weaken the case of BP, which hoped the audit would show that Juneau is not qualified to oversee the process, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported.

BP’s fight is part of its larger mission to control the ballooning costs of the settlement process, which it says is filled with errors and fraud.

Juneau told the Times-Picayune that the results reaffirm his work.

“I am very grateful to all of those people who worked so hard to make this happen,” he told the newspaper in a statement. “It speaks volumes as to what has been accomplished to date.”

BP said it was still reading through the report.

In a sample of claims that auditors analyzed, only 0.3 percent had been miscalculated. Extrapolated to the entire population of claims, that increased slightly to 0.5 percent.

Audit firm McGladrey said the error rate is extremely low and “a significant accomplishment,” the Times-Picayune reported.