It does not mean the payments will immediately start flowing again.

BP says the temporary injunction it won preventing the payments would not be lifted until the case was transferred back to the District Court.

BP had sought a permanent injunction preventing certain payments under the economic and property damages settlement it reached in 2012.

It asked the court to prevent payments to business economic loss claimants whose alleged injuries were not traceable to the Deepwater Horizon disaster and oil spill.

However, in a two-to-one vote the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans upheld a December 24 ruling by US District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans authorising the BEL payments.

The decision is a blow to BP's attempts to limit payments under a multi-billion dollar settlement it reached over the Deepwater Horizon disaster and oil spill.

The disaster killed 11 people and triggered the US' largest oil spill.

In a statement BP says it disagrees with the decision by the US appeals court.

"By denying the relief BP requested, however, BP believes that today's decision will improperly allow for the payment of losses with no connection to the spill," the company says.

"BP further believes that unless this problem is fully corrected, the settlement cannot by upheld under the law.

"BP has accordingly already sought en banc rehearing of the January 2014 decision by a separate panel of the Fifth Circuit upholding the validity of the settlement.

"The full court has not yet reached a decision on BP's en banc rehearing petition."

The company says its petition for en banc rehearing could further delay the District Court lifting the temporary injunction BP had put in place on the BEL payments.

In its statement BP says it has already secured a favourable ruling in the courts regarding the matching of revenues and expenses in calculating BEL claims.

In December, after 10 months of litigation, including two appeals to the Fifth Circuit, the District Court reversed its prior rulings and held that the court supervised settlement program had to ensure claimants' reported revenues and expenses be correctly matched for the purposes of discriminating awards under the settlement.

As of December 31, BP had no provision for BEL claims payable under the settlement because it says no reliable estimate can be made.

It says that estimate will be established when the uncertainties referred to in its fourth quarter and full year 2013 results are resolved and a reliable estimate can be made of the liability.

BP has set aside $US42.7 billion ($A47.7 billion) for clean-up, compensation, legal and other costs related to the spill.