Gulf to recover from BP oil spill by 2012

NEW ORLEANS - A federal judge said the embattled administrator of the $20-billion compensation fund for Gulf oil spill victims is not independent from BP and he must stop telling potential claimants that he is.

U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier said he is ordering BP, claims czar Kenneth Feinberg and any of their agents to change the way they communicate with people seeking money from the fund. He said Feinberg must clearly disclose in all communications that he is acting for and on behalf of BP in fulfilling its obligations as the responsible party under the Oil Pollution Act.

Earlier , Feinberg had said the Gulf of Mexico should largely recover from the oil spill by the end of 2012, and all final settlement offers to victims who lost revenue in the disaster will be based on that assessment. He said the Gulf Coast Claims Facility relied on experts to determine that a 30 percent recovery is likely this year with full recovery in 2012. But he noted that oyster harvesting will take longer.

BP PLC set up the fund in August to compensate people for lost revenue following the oil well blowout off Louisiana. So far it has paid about $3.3 billion to 168,000 claimants, but many are still waiting for any money, and thousands of others claim they were shortchanged. About half of 485,000 claims filed have been denied because of ineligibility or lack of documentation.

Feinberg has faced repeated criticism about the slow pace of payments and the small size of checks to victims, as well as complaints about lack of transparency and perceived influence from BP. - AP