BP has agreed to a demand by US President Barack Obama to place about $20bn in escrow to pay claims resulting from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
However, a White House official said the 'preliminary' agreement does not cap the amount the company would be responsible to pay.
BP executives, including Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg, CEO Tony Hayward and BP’s US boss Lamar McKay, are meeting President Obama in the White House today.
The meeting comes a day after Mr Obama, in a televised address to Americans, accused BP of recklessness.
Mr Obama has said he will hold the company responsible for paying compensation to victims of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The president made his comments in his first televised address from the Oval Office, in an effort to restore public confidence in his handling of the country's worst environmental disaster.
However, he said tackling the spill could take months or even years.
President Obama likened the oil leak to an epidemic that was affecting virtually the whole of the Gulf Coast.
He said BP would be made to pay for the damage caused by the environmental disaster.
The president said he would fight the spill with everything the government could muster and would radically reform the federal agencies that oversee the oil industry.
The President's speech comes just hours before he meets the chair of the BP board where it is expected he will demand that the oil company put billions of dollars into a special account to be given as compensation to those affected.
Opinion polls have shown that the US public have not been impressed by the government's actions so far, criticism which has stung the administration.
