Representatives from British Petroleum and the federal government are expected to begin discussion over how much oil was actually spilled into the ocean during the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Experts from the Justice Department have said that 176 million gallons of oil has spilled into the Gulf after the accident. BP has been asking the courts to accept an estimate of nearly 103 million gallons while calculating any Clean Water Act fines. According to government figures, the maximum amount of fines would reach $18 billion while BP figures showed that the maximum could be around be around $10.5 billion.

BP has been able to successfully convince a court to order a re-examination of key terms of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil-spill settlement. The company claimed that the settlement could lead to billions of dollars in improper pay-outs for the company. BP said the program's administrator, Patrick Juneau was giving approval to millions of dollars in "fictitious" payments to businesses for economic losses based on a flawed interpretation of the settlement reached between the company and the authorities and others.

The U. S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans has ordered that the case be sent back to the al judge for further consideration. The court also ordered U. S. District Judge Carl Barbier to review some interpretations of the terms.