BP raised the cost so far of its oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to $2.65 billion today, an increase of about $300m over the weekend.
'The cost of the response to date amounts to approximately $2.65 billion, including the cost of the spill response, containment, relief well drilling, grants to the Gulf states, claims paid, and federal costs,' BP said.
'It is too early to quantify other potential costs and liabilities associated with the incident,' the company added.
The costs for BP are rising sharply on a daily basis. On Friday the bill had stood at $2.35 billion. That works out at about $4m an hour on the basis that the figures were given three days apart.
But these figures are a drop in the ocean compared to the billions of dollars wiped off its market value. BP's share price has collapsed by more than 50% since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig which the company operated sank on April 22, two days after a blast killed 11 workers.
The shares slumped close to a 14-year low point on Friday but won back some ground to finish with a gain of 1.20% at 308.25 pence today.
After coming under intense pressure from US President Barack Obama over the worst ever US environmental disaster, BP has agreed to suspend its shareholder dividend and create a $20 billion fund for costs arising from the spill.
BP is also selling non-core assets to raise $10 billion, while international ratings agencies have downgraded the company's credit worthiness.
Although Obama has vowed to hold BP accountable, the president has agreed with British Prime Minister David Cameron that the company should 'remain a strong and stable company'.
'The leaders agreed that BP should meet its obligations to cap the leak, clean up the damage and meet legitimate compensation claims,' Cameron's office said in a statement issued after the meeting held before the G20 leaders' weekend summit in Toronto, Canada.
A senior US administration official added that both leaders had agreed 'BP has certain obligations and that those obligations have got to be met'. On Friday, Cameron warned against the destruction of the company, saying it was 'important for all our interests'.
Tropical Storm Alex delays oil capture plans
BP's plan to increase oil-capture capacity this week at the leak to up to 53,000 barrels a day will be delayed by high waves expected to be generated by Tropical Storm Alex, a company executive has said.
But the storm is not expected to interrupt current oil-capture systems or the drilling of a pair of relief wells intended to plug the leak by August.
BP said it expects to continue those operations 'unless unfortunately a storm heads directly our way'.
Tropical Storm Alex is slowly intensifying and will likely strengthen into the first hurricane of the Atlantic season on Tuesday, the US National Hurricane Center said.
The NHC expects Alex to come ashore near the Texas-Mexico border early on Thursday.
BP said waves of up to 12 feet (3.7 metres) could cause a delay of up to a week in hooking up a third oil-capture system.
An undetermined amount of oil continues to billow out from under the rig's cap and through vents on top into the sea. A team of US scientists estimate that the leak is gushing up to 60,000 barrels a day overall.
The current system involves a drillship and a service rig that can handle up to 28,000 barrels a day of oil. The next step is adding another rig to the mix to increase that capacity to 53,000 barrels a day, according to BP.
A plan to increase capacity up to 80,000 barrels a day by mid-July remains on track, BP said.
