The $7.8 billion agreed settlement between BP and private individuals and businesses suing in the US for damages over Macondo made headlines late last week, but the UK major faces a long and costly road ahead. First, the settlement with the Plaintiff's Steering Committee (PSC) representing private clients in the multi-district litigation taking shape in New Orleans, while meaningful, does not encompass suits by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and other governmental entities also proceeding as part of that trial. That said, analysts seem to uniformly view the PSC settlement as improving prospects for a similar out-of-court resolution with the DOJ. The funds to cover the PSC settlement will come out of the $20 billion Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF) already set up by BP and therefore fall within provisioning made to date by the company regarding the catastrophic 2010 blowout in the US Gulf of Mexico. But what can BP afford in further potential settlements?
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