Attempts by BP to limit claims over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill have gained ground after a federal appeals court in the United States ruled in its favour.
The court voted for an injunction to suspend any further payment to firms that could not be traced back directly.
BP argued that last year's settlement bill was being misinterpeted, allowing companies that had not suffered any harm to claim some losses.
The BBC reports the ruling means that payments to any business that cannot directly trace its losses back to the spill will now be suspended temporarily.
An estimated four million barrels of crude spilled into the Gulf after the disaster.
