Friday the 13th was a bad luck day for BP Plc.

On Friday, the Texas Supreme Court rejected BP's claim for $750 million worth of coverage under Transocean Ltd.'s insurance policies to help pay the billions of dollars in damages and other costs associated with the ill-fated Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. BP has already paid more than $28 billion in damages and costs related to the April 20, 2010 explosion and oil spill. The incident killed 11 people and started the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

Transocean actually owned the oil rig and had been hired by BP to drill the Macondo oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Louisiana. Transocean had insured the drilling rig with a $50 million primary policy from Ranger Insurance and $700 million from Lloyd's of London and other underwriters. In 2010, BP filed claims with Transocean's carriers for coverage of below-surface pollution liabilities.

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Rosalie Donlon

Rosalie Donlon is the editor in chief of ALM's insurance and tax publications, including NU Property & Casualty magazine and NU PropertyCasualty360.com. You can contact her at [email protected].