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Australian insurance major QBE Insurance Group is seeking to allay investor fears over its exposure to the BP oil spill disaster, and reiterated the point that it has significant re-insurance cover, which would be more than adequate to cover large claims.

QBE’s stock price has taken a battering over the last month or so, and has lost 15 per cent since the start of April, in large part because investor fears over the size of its exposure to the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

On Thursday, the insurer released a statement saying that the market update it released at the end of April provided specific details on large individual risk and catastrophe claims. The update all included the maximum net exposure the insurer faces for claims on policies exposed to the oil spill.

“QBE has significant external reinsurance protection in place for claims of this nature,” it said.

QBE has faced catastrophe claims so far this year on the Gulf of Mexico oil rig loss, earthquakes in both Chile and Haiti, the Melbourne hail storm, the Icelandic volcano eruption, the earthquake in Western Australia, and some US tornadoes.

QBE said it had a $1.28 billion allowance to cover claims of this nature, including reinsurance protection of $180m for claims above $1.1bn.

Last month almost half the syndicates in the Lloyd’s of London insurance market, including QBE Underwriting, launched legal action against BP. The syndicates are attempting to block efforts by the BP to claim on cover held by Transocean.

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