"We want to get these claims out quicker," he said a day earlier. "We want to get these claims out with more transparency."
Feinberg is no stranger to disasters - he ran the claim fund for victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He said BP has already paid out more than $100 million to spill victims. Claims total about $600 million so far.
BP said this week it has spent $2 billion fighting the spill, with no end in sight. It's likely to be at least August before crews finish two relief wells that are the best chance of stopping the oil. In the meantime, a containment device is sucking up some of the oil gushing from the well. Coast guard Admiral Thad Allen said Tuesday that it had collected more than four million litres in 24 hours, a new record.
No one knows exactly how much oil is spilling, but BP hopes to contain as much as 90 per cent of it over the next few weeks. The current worst-case estimate is about nine million litres a day.
