In the largest environmental settlement in the US history, oil and gas giant BP will pay over $20 billion to the American government as damages over the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
A US judge approved the settlement deal, resolving years of litigation over the worst offshore spill in the nation’s history.
The settlement, first announced in July, includes $5.5 billion in civil Clean Water Act penalties and billions more to cover environmental damage and other claims by the five Gulf states and local governments.
The money is to be paid out over roughly 16 years.
The US Justice Department has estimated that the settlement will cost the oil giant as much as $20.8 billion, the largest-ever civil settlement with a single entity. US District Judge Carl Barbier, who approved the settlement, had set the stage with an earlier ruling that BP had been “grossly negligent” in the offshore rig explosion that killed 11 workers and caused a 134-million-gallon spill.
The $20.8 billion settlement includes $7.1 billion for natural resource damages, $5.5 billion for Clean Water Act fines, and $4.9 billion in payments to five US states: Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Texas. Several hundred local governmental bodies will receive up to $1 billion to settle claims for economic damages.
The current deal ends five years of legal battling between the US government and BP. The feds sued BP in December 2010, half a year after an explosion and fire occurred at the BP-licensed Deepwater Horizon Transocean drilling rig in April 2010.
Note
More than 3 million barrels of oil seeped into the Gulf of Mexico over a period of nearly three months during the ecological catastrophe, making the spill the largest accident of its kind in petroleum industry history. Around 16,000 miles of coastline were affected and, according to the National Park Service, more than 8,000 animals died as a result.
Fire boat response crews battle the blazing remnants of the offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon, off Louisiana
In 2012, BP reached a similar settlement agreement with private attorneys for businesses and residents who claim the spill cost them money
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