A US federal appeals court has revived BP’s claims that a judge’s interpretation of a settlement over its 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico could force the company to pay billions of dollars for bogus or inflated claims by businesses.

A settlement being hammered out between BP and victims of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill finally provides a system for monitoring health concerns and compensating people with illnesses linked to the disaster.

BP has agreed to settle claims from thousands of fishermen who lost work and others who said they were harmed by the oil giant’s 2010 Gulf of Mexico disaster, the worst offshore oil spill in US history.

The embattled administrator of the €14.3bn fund for Gulf oil spill victims has been told by BP that his formula for determining final payments is too generous.