BP pays 5 bln USD to Gulf oil spill victims

The fund set up by British oil giant BP has paid more than 5 billion U.S. dollars in claims to victims of last year's devastating oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the fund's administrator said Tuesday. A report released by Kenneth Feinberg, head of the fund, shows that the 20-billion-U.S. dollar fund, known as the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, has so far received 947,892 claims from all 50 states and 36 countries.A total of 359,441 claims were paid and 430,000 were denied, with some pending and other claims coming in, according to the report. The vast majority of the claims paid have gone to five states. The biggest recipient of the BP compensation is Florida, which got 2 billion. Louisiana residents and businesses received 1.5 billion, followed by Alabama, Mississippi and Texas. The BP fund was set up a year ago following the April 2010 spill. The accident killed eleven workers and unleashed the worst oil spill in U.S. history.