Supreme Court won’t let BP stop paying settlements for 2010 Gulf spill

The Supreme Court refused Monday allow BP to stop making payments from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill while the court considers it appeal on the settlement.

The decision means BP must continue to pay hundreds of millions of dollars from the settlement, which is worth $9.2 billion in total.

{mosads}The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in May that BP must pay the claims, even to businesses that it said were not harmed by the 2010 spill that followed an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig, which BP was operating. BP appealed to the Supreme Court shortly after the Fifth Circuit’s ruling.

Monday’s decision from the Supreme Court did not include any explanation. The Supreme Court will likely decide whether to consider BP’s underlying case later this year, Bloomberg News reported.

BP spokesman Geoff Morrell told Bloomberg that Monday’s decision not to halt the payments “will allow hundreds of millions of dollars to be irretrievably scattered to claimants whose losses were not plausibly caused by the Deepwater Horizon accident.”

Lawyers for the victims of the spill said they were pleased with the denial.