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Saturday, 17 November 2012 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Reuters: BP Plc will pay $4.5 billion in penalties and plead guilty to felony misconduct in the Deepwater Horizon disaster, which caused the worst U.S. offshore oil spill ever.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder called the deal a “critical step forward” but was adamant that it did not end the criminal investigation of the spill.
The settlement includes a $1.256 billion criminal fine, the largest such levy in U.S. history. I t was not, however, the “global” settlement s o me had hoped for, which would have also resolved the considerable federal civil claims against the company at the same time.
“BP lied to me. They lied to the people of the Gulf. And they lied to their shareholders, and they lied to all Americans,” said Rep. Ed Markey, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee who led the investigations at the time of the spill.
The government also indicted the two highest-ranking BP supervisors aboard the Deepwater Horizon during the disaster, charging them with 23 criminal counts including manslaughter. One man’s lawyer said his client was being turned into a scapegoat for the disaster.
The April 2010 explosion on the rig in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 workers. The mile-deep (1.6 km) Macondo oil well then spewed 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf over 87 days, fouling shorelines from Texas to Florida and eclipsing in severity the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska.
The company said it would plead guilty to 11 felony counts related to the workers’ deaths, a felony related to obstruction of Congress and two misdemeanors. It also faces five years’ probation and the imposition of two monitors who will oversee its process safety and ethics for the next four years.
BP, which replaced its chief executive after the spill as its market value plummeted, still faces economic and environmental damage claims sought by four Gulf Coast states and other private plaintiffs.
The settlement could also prompt a debate in Congress about how funds would be shared with the Gulf Coast states. Congress passed a law last year that would earmark 80 percent of BP penalties paid under the Clean Water Act to Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Texas.
BP said the payments would be spread over six years, and that it expected to be able to handle the payments “within BP’s current financial framework.”
The company has sold $35 billion worth of assets to fund the costs of the spill. Matching that, it has paid $23 billion already in clean-up costs and claims, and has a further $12 billion earmarked for payment in its spill trust fund.
The oil company said it has not been advised of any government authority that intends to debar BP from federal contracting activities as a result of the deal.
BP has already announced an uncapped class-action settlement with private plaintiffs that the company estimates will cost $7.8 billion to resolve litigation brought by over 100,000 individuals and businesses claiming economic and medical damages from the spill.
