BP PLC for the first time has identified in court papers the amount its subsidiary should pay in civil fines for its role in the Deepwater Horizon spill, claiming that anything more than $2.3 billion could result in insolvency.

The oil giant in court papers filed on Friday specified the dollar amount in arguing what BP Exploration & Production Inc. is liable for under the Clean Water Act for its negligence in causing the 2010 spill. The U.S. Department of Justice, in its own filings on Friday, continued to push for the maximum penalty of $13.7 billion—or, at the very least, more than $12 billion.

BP Exploration & Production, which already spent $35.7 billion in claims payments and a massive cleanup of the Gulf of Mexico following the spill, said imposing too high a fine under the Clean Water Act would discourage other companies from doing the same.