Determining the Amount of Non-profit claim from BP: In which Zone are You Situated?


Oct 10

About 4.9 million barrels or 210 million gallons of oil leaked into the Gulf of Mexico due to what is now known as the BP oil spill, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the Macondo blowout or the BP oil disaster, which took place on April 20, 2010. This sea tragedy, probably the United State’s worst environmental disaster and the world’s largest oil spill, left 11 people dead and contaminated the ocean with oil and gas. The leak was caused by a wellhead blowout, which means a malfunction in the pressure control system, resulting to an unrestrained release of oil and gas, enough to cause an explosion big enough to engulf the rig in inextinguishable fire and cause it to sink two days after. It was said that the leak was capped 87 days after it began (on July 15, 2010); there was strong belief, however, that it continued to spill out oil three years after it began.

The oil rig was actually owned by Transocean, but was under lease to British Petroleum (BP) when it exploded. Besides knocking off the Gulf Coast economy, the spill also greatly impacted the Coast’s public health, fishing industry, tourism, marine wildlife and non-profit organizations.

Due to the harm and damages the oil spill has caused to man and nature, BP ended up facing loads of financial liabilities. To easily distinguish fraudulent from authentic claims (that the person’s or business’ losses were really consequences of the spill), the company came up with a scheme that will easily determine the eligibility of claimants.

The MySpillClaim website, which is operated by Williams Kherkher, shares a My Spill Claim Calculator form which easily shows the financial downtrend experienced by any entity during the months that immediately follow the oil spill. The website also offers an interactive map to help the person or firm determine the zone where he/she/it is situated.

To allow BP and the court to easily determine the degree of impact the spill has had on claimants’ financial situation, as well as the amount of settlement damage they are qualified to receive, the affected areas were divided into four “geographic economic loss zones.” These are Zones A, B, C and D, where Zone A is identified as the area situated right along the coast and, therefore, the one affected the most. The three other Zones are areas not necessarily located along the shoreline, but which may have suffered economical losses too due to the spill.

It is very likely that non-profit organizations may have been affected too by the oil spill, making them qualified for a non-profit oil spill claim. Actions, such as donors failing to make any charitable donation since they have been affected by the oil spill and a donor or a number of them have decided to donate for an environmental cause instead, definitely lead to reduced monthly revenues.