Alabama is suing BP and Transocean for damages sustained from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Troy King the state's attorney general said: "We are making this claim because we believe that BP has inflicted catastrophic harm on the state."

"We are suing them for the amount it will take to make Alabama whole," he added, declining to name a figure.

A team of economic experts is still trying to put a figure on the state's economic losses but overall they feel that BP has not excepted enough responsibility for the disaster.

At least 300 federal lawsuits have been filed in12 states against BP and the other three main companies involved in the April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drill rig, which triggered the disaster.

No oil has leaked into the Gulf of Mexico since July 15, when BP plugged the top of the well with cement.