BP's costs for the oil spill reach $2 billion

BP's costs have reached about $2 billion in response to the April oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. 

Costs for containment, cleanup and relief well drilling continue to swell as the oil giant battles the massive oil leak and a growing cleanup job. 

The company reported paying more than $105 million in claims to individuals and businesses along the Gulf Coast — 32,000 payments out of 65,000 claims filed. 

"Our focus has been on getting money into the hands of fishermen, shrimpers, condo owners and others who have not been able to earn income due to the spill," said Darryl Willis, of the BP claims team. "We have also been addressing the larger, more complex claims and have been successful in sending more checks to commercial entities." 

During the past couple of weeks, at the behest of federal and state officials, BP has made changes to its claims process such as re-examining the amount provided based on seasonal income fluctuations. 

"The average time from filing a claim to checks being issued is 4 days for individuals and seven days for more complex business claims that have provided supporting documentation," BP said in a release.

BP agreed last week to create a $20 billion account that would be used to pay those claims among other costs after meeting with Obama administration officials. The oversight of that account will switch over to a third party, Ken Feinberg, who oversaw payments to families of Sept. 11 victims, the Virginia Tech massacre and executive compensation for firms that received federal bailout money. 

The company said "it is too early to quantify other potential costs and liabilities associated with the incident."

BP also established a $100 million fund for those out of work because of a moratorium on deepwater oil drilling.