BP oil spill could cost tourism and fishing $5.5bn, say analysts

 The legal claims that flow from the Deepwater Horizon disaster will keep an army of lawyers busy for years, with detailed estimates of the figures beginning to emerge yesterday.

The cost to Louisiana?s fishing industry could be $2.5 billion (?1.6 billion) while the impact on tourism along the Florida coast could be $3 billion, according to Neil McMahon, an analyst at the investment firm Bernstein.

BP would take ?full responsibility? for the spill, its chief executive, Tony Hayward, said yesterday. ?Where people can present legitimate claims for damages we will honour them. We are going to be very, very aggressive in all of that.?

Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, offered a more direct assessment. ?Under the Oil Pollution Act, BP pays for all this,? he said.

 Britain?s second-largest company is insured for any costs related to the spill, so it will have to bear its full share of spending, which is running at a minimum of $6 million a day plus $100 million to drill each relief well.

Lloyds, the London insurer, has a big exposure to the accident as the main underwriter for Transocean, the Swiss company that owned and operated the rig.

The total estimated cost of the accident for the insurance industry stands at $1.6 billion, according to JPMorgan Chase. Transocean, which was responsible for on-board safety, is likely to bear the brunt of legal action filed by the families of dead and injured workers.

A statement from Lloyd said the group ?does have exposure? but it was too early to tell to what extent. ?We are currently reviewing our contracts to ascertain what parties have interest in the platform and oil well other than BP and Transocean.?

Halliburton, the Texan oil services group, was helping to cement the well at the time of the blast and has also been named in lawsuits.

Cameron International, the US manufacturer of the blowout preventer  a key piece of equipment that failed to work on the rig can also expect to face litigation. The device was designed automatically to cut off the flow of oil in the event of just such an accident.