BP says that it expects to take a post-tax non-operating charge of around $1.7 billion in its fourth quarter 2017 results for business economic loss and other claims associated with a Court Supervised Settlement Program set up as part of the Deepwater Horizon class action settlement.

BP says the cash impact is expected to be spread over multiple years.

The company says that the charge results primarily from "significantly higher claims" issued by the settlement program in the fourth quarter and the continuing effect of an adverse May 2017 court ruling on matching revenues with expenses when evaluating loss claims.

Since the 2010 accident in the Gulf of Mexico, BP has spent around $65 billion in cleanup and related claims, according to the Financial Times Newspaper. The company initially had set aside around $20 billion for accident-related expenses.

Brian Gilvary, BP’s chief financial officer, said in a statement: “The charge we are taking as a result is fully manageable within our existing financial framework, especially now that we have the company back into balance at $50 per barrel.”

Cash payments related to Deepwater Horizon in 2018 are now expected to be around $3 billion, up from the company’s third-quarter estimate of just over $2 billion.