Bermuda is expected to fork out more than 60 percent of the costs of the UK’s largest peacetime fire and explosion, Minister of Finance Bob Richards said yesterday.

Bermuda-based firms are likely to be liable for 62 percent of the claims resulting from a major fire at an oil terminal in Buncefield, Hertfordshire, in 2005.

Mr Richards said that Bermuda-based companies provide “substantial” insurance coverage to the UK market.

He was speaking after a series of high-level meetings with the UK government, held last month in London.

Mr Richards added: “In 2011, Bermuda was the UK’s third-largest foreign investor among non-European countries, according to the 2013 Bermuda and the World Economy Report.”

And he said: “The meetings directly support our commitment to strengthen public diplomacy and support bilateral and multilateral agreement.”

Mr Richards added: “Bermuda’s international activities require support from the United Kingdom.

“Our work with the UK government involves both the technical and political levels and it is important to ensure that factors that are examined are indeed relevant to Bermuda.

“The Ministry is committed to ensuring that appropriate information about Bermuda is transmitted to the key individuals in the UK government and other institutions in order to ensure that Bermuda’s position is clearly taken into account.”

While in London, Mr Richards also attended meetings aimed at boosting trade.

He said: “Engagement is just one part of getting policy right. Other important factors include truly valuing the contribution that a wide range of different people can make to what you are doing.

“As with my recent visit to Brussels, the trip is part of a broader effort to build goodwill and confidence in Bermuda.”

Mr Richards, who was flanked by senior civil servants and the director of the Bermuda London office, Kimberley Durrant, as well as the Island’s Brussels-based legal counsel, Alastair Sutton, met British MPs and representatives of the Foreign Office during the three-day trip at the end of October.