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.

This case has bounced back and forth between several courts before finally landing with the Texas Supreme Court for a ruling on interpretation of the drilling contract under state law. BP claimed that Transocean's policies covered the oil company as well as an additional insured; Transocean and its carriers claimed that the drilling contract on the Macondo well limited coverage.

BP argued that the drilling contract skipped a needed comma, which created an ambiguity that should be resolved in its favor. The clause in question in the agreement says that BP, its subsidiaries and its workers would be "named as additional insureds" in Transocean's insurance policies "except Workers' Compensation for liabilities assumed by [Transocean] under the terms of this contract." According to BP, the lack of a comma after Workers' Compensation leaves open coverage liability for oil discharged from the well. Transocean argued that the rig owner agreed to cover BP only for liabilities assumed by Transocean.

Transocean's insurance policy had to be read in context with the company's drilling contract with BP, the Texas Supreme Court said in its ruling. BP is not entitled to coverage under the Transocean insurance policies for damages arising from subsurface pollution because BP, not Transocean, assumed liability for those claims, the court held.

BP said in a regulatory filing Feb. 3 that it has set aside $43.5 billion to cover all costs of the spill. The ultimate cost has yet to be determined but some industry estimates expect it to be in the range of $50 billion.

In a statement following the ruling, Geoff Morrell, BP's Senior Vice President for U.S. Communications and External Affairs said, "we are disappointed and are considering our options."

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