The British energy giant BP announced Thursday its has established a 360 million dollars escrow account to fund the construction of six sections of barrier islands by the U.S. state of Lousiana to keep away the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. BP said in a press release that it has been directed to pay for the construction by the U.S. federal government. 'Since the environmental implications of the projects are not fully understood, BP assumes no liability for unexpected or unintended consequences of these projects,' the release said. BP has already provided 170 million U.S. dollars to Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida to help with their response costs and help promote their tourism industries, according to the release. The company has also paid approximately 43 million dollars in compensation to people and companies affected by the spill, it said. BP said earlier that the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico had cost it almost a billion dollars. Two credit rating firms Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings downgraded BP's rating on Thursday amid fears over the soaring cost of Gulf of Mexico disaster. Fitch downgraded the oil giant to AA from AA-plus, citing the potential for civil and criminal charges by the U.S. federal government and saying 'risks to both BP's business and financial profile continue to increase.' Fitch estimated that the clean-up and oil containment could cost BP as much as 3 billion dollars this year. Moody's lowered BP to AA2 from AA1 and put it on review, which might lead to another downgrade. 