Texas-based Anadarko owes BP more than $272 million for its share of cleanup and response costs in the Gulf, according to a bill that was sent by BP and obtained by TPMMuckraker.
Anadarko owns a 25 percent stake in BP’s Deepwater Horizon, and BP wants Anadarko to pay for 25 percent of costs. Those costs include money BP has spent to drill the relief wells and stage other spill response efforts, plus reimbursements to the federal government, damages to equipment and claims paid to those hurt by the leak.
The $272 million demanded by BP is roughly equal to a quarter of BP’s total spending of more than $1 billion as of the invoice date, June 2.
Read the full invoice, sent to TPMmuckraker by the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, part of the Homeland Security Committee.
Anadarko publicly suggested this month that it won’t pay for costs associated with the oil disaster, claiming in a statement that BP is guilty of gross negligence or willful misconduct. Under the joint operating agreement, Anadarko must pay its portion of costs related to any incident — unless that incident was caused by its partner’s, guess what, gross negligence or willful misconduct.
As for the bill, an Anadarko spokesman would only say that the company is reviewing it.
A BP spokesman declined to comment.
The invoice also notes that Anadarko has already paid BP $8.7 million. It’s unclear whether that’s related to the spill response or whether it was part of development costs Anadarko was paying as a partner in the well.
BP also sent a bill for $111 million to Moex, a subsidiary of Japanese company Mitsui, which owned a 10 percent stake in the well.
If any of the companies take legal action over the bills, they will likely be settled in private arbitration, as stipulated in their operating agreement.
Late update: Some clarification on what the numbers mean:
The “cash call receipt” reflects what BP received from Anadarko for the month of May: $8.7 million.
The “cash call request,” of about $169 million, is a bill for operations of the well in June.
The two “expenditures” reflect Anadarko’s share of bills that BP has already received: $6 million for the well itself, and $105 million for spill response bills.
