BP's liabilities and potential fines are growing each day before the company could finish drilling two relief wells by mid-August and thus bring an end to the leak.

At least 130 lawsuits have been filed seeking damages for lost businesses, mostly from seafood processing plants, charter boat captains, hotels, restaurants and others who depend on the sea for a living.

The stakes will be even higher as the federal authorities have opened criminal and civil investigations into the spill.

Under the federal law, BP could also face a minimum fine of 1,000 dollars for per barrel of oil spilled, legal experts said.

Government scientists estimate about 40 million gallons to more than 100 million gallons of oil have already leaked into the Gulf of Mexico.

The BP disaster has eclipsed the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, which cost Exxon Mobil 4.5 billion dollars. But experts say BP may have to pay much more because the Gulf coast is home to far more people and businesses than Alaska, where the Valdez ran aground.

In addition to cleanup costs, claims, and industries' damages, Washington will probably also ask BP to pay for restoring the oil-contaminated coastline and the damaged ecosystem.

Exxon paid a billion dollars to compensate for the birds, fish, mammals and plants that were killed in the 1989 oil spill.