Despite the downturn in the oil and gas industry, claims costs are increasing, a speaker said on Thursday at the Canadian Risk and Insurance Education Forum. “I would suggest that in the upstream oil and gas industry where most spills are concentrated we think that claims costs are increasing by more than four times the rate of inflation,” said David McKeen, vice president, western Canada regional manager at Chubb Insurance Company of Canada. “Thats still happening despite the downturn.” While it can be difficult to determine exactly what is contributing to the increased claims costs, McKeen noted that generally speaking, there are four main variables in how much a crude oil spill costs to clean up: quantity, what is spilled, where it was spilled and what receptors are in the area.
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