‘British Petroleum’s bill for containing and cleaning up the oil spill has reached almost $10bn (£6.4bn), as the US government declared that the blown-out well has finally been plugged, five months after the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig.

BP also said payouts to people affected by the spill such as fishermen, hoteliers and retailers had dramatically increased since it handed over authority for dispensing funds to a White House appointee.

BP has set up a $20bn compensation fund, which has so far paid out 19,000 claims totalling more than $240m.

The oil company previously paid out about $3.5m a day in compensation, but this has risen to $12.5m a day since Feinberg took over.’

What great official news! British Petroleum, the government and all other officials agree that the well is finally done spilling- for good. BP’s cleanup costs are huge though, and there are definitely going to be many fair trials. The legal costs are going to be higher because of BP’s huge negligence to the environment and everything.

But realize, just for a second, what a huge number 10 billion dollars is, and the fact that there will be much, much more in fines to the oil giant over the next decade. That’s how long it takes for legal proceedings to do with environmental disasters to get completed.