BP is digging in for a long legal battle over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Chief Executive Bob Dudley said on Tuesday after compensation costs soared for a second straight quarter.

The payouts, the scale of which BP is disputing even though they are one part of the case that was settled last year, have been the focus of attention in recent months in a wider legal process that has saddled BP with a $42.4 billion clean-up, fines and compensation burden and could yet cost billions more.

BP has said some of claims being paid are "absurd" and "fictitious" and that the terms are being misinterpreted to allow businesses which had no spill-associated loss receive payment. It has so far failed in all its attempts to stop them.

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