The Gulf of Mexico will have largely recovered from the BP oil spill by the end of 2012, the administrator of the $20bn (£12bn) pay-outs fund has said.
Attorney Kenneth Feinberg said that compensation to those who lost revenue from the disaster would be based on this prediction.
Meanwhile, a judge has ruled that Mr Feinberg make clear to claimants that he is not independent from BP.
The Deepwater Horizon spill was the biggest in US history.
The fund was set up by BP in August to compensate those affected by the spill, and has so far paid out about $3.3bn to 168,000 people.
Mr Feinberg said experts have determined that most of the oil would have dispersed and the economy picked up by the end of next year. There will be a 30% recovery in 2011, he added.
But he also noted that the recovery of oyster harvesting may take longer.
'Hybrid entity'
The assessment was based mainly on reports from a Texas professor and a consulting firm.
Based on the predictions, Mr Feinberg has proposed that claimants receive twice the amount they lost in 2010, apart from oyster harvesters, who will be offered four times as much.
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