BP named the Gulf of Mexico assets that it will use to help finance the $20 billion fund for victims of its oil spill and said the cost of dealing with the disaster had risen to $11.2 billion.
The oil major on Friday said that revenue from a number of its oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico, including Thunder Horse, Atlantis and Mad Dog, would be tied to its compensation payments to the fund.
A BP spokesman declined to comment on whether the deal means the U.S. government has told BP, or the company expects, it will not be banned from future drilling.
There have been some concerns that BP could be banned after lawmakers in July voted to pass an amendment to a bill that would prevent BP from acquiring drilling leases after the blow-out at its Macondo well in April led to the worst oil spill in U.S. history.
