(Reuters) - BP Plc on Friday asked a federal judge to temporarily halt an estimated $8.5 billion settlement with plaintiffs over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, saying the claims administrator's decisions could give claimants "windfalls" and cost the oil company billions of dollars.

A filing in federal court in New Orleans said BP would be "irreparably harmed" without relief from the court.

A judge ruled March 5 that BP must keep paying certain types of oil spill compensation in much larger amounts and to more parties than the company had anticipated.

(Reporting By Jonathan Stempel in New York and Kristen Hays in Houston)