U.S. Seeks BP Fine of Up to $18 Billion for Gulf Oil Spill Disaster – Bloomberg.
The government wants BP Plc (BP/) to pay $16 billion to $18 billion in water-pollution fines for the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history while seeking more than $1 billion from the co-owner of the blown-out well that caused the 2010 Gulf of Mexico disaster.
The federal government said BP deserves the maximum fine, which BP said would be the biggest Clean Water Act penalty ever and called it a “gross outlier” compared to other cases.
U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans ruled in September that London-based BP acted with gross negligence in drilling the well, a finding that quadruples the per-barrel penalty. As of Oct. 28, the company had set aside $3.51 billion for the penalties, saying that’s a reliable estimate of its liability if it wins an appeal of the judge’s ruling.
Barbier will conduct a non-jury trial next month to set pollution fines for BP and its well partner,Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC), after weighing multiple factors including the spill’s size and the level of responsibility each company bears for the disaster.
“APC’s culpability is minimal compared to that of BPXP,” the government said in today’s filing, referring to Anadarko and BP’s exploration unit.
