LONDON (Alliance News) - British oil giant BP PLC said Thursday that a US District Court ruled that 3.19 million barrels of oil were discharged into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, the worst offshore oil spill in the US history. However, the Court has now found that BP was 'not grossly negligent' in its source control efforts.
The ruling by the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana in the phase 2 trial will see BP paying a minimum Clean Water Act (CWA) penalty of USD3.5 billion and a maximum of USD13.7 billion. However, no penalty has yet been determined.
Under the Clean Water Act, the maximum penalty for "simply negligent" oil spill is USD1,100 per barrel. However, if a company is found "grossly negligent," then the penalty surges to as much as USD4,300 a barrel. In the phase 1 trial, the court found that BP was "grossly negligent" in its source control efforts for the oil spill.
The decisions in the Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials represent steps in the process of assessing a CWA penalty through the quantification of oil spilled and BP's source control efforts following the accident.
The phase 3 of the CWA trial, currently scheduled to begin in the Court on January 20, will address the penalty assessment. BP has reportedly asked that the per-barrel fine be capped at USD3,000. BP has already allocated USD3.5 billion to cover CWA penalty, and has reportedly spent USD43 billion in spill response and claims.
The quantum of oil discharged into the Gulf of Mexico is less than the US government's initial estimation of 4.2 million barrels, which could have seen BP paying a penalty of USD18 billion.
Meanwhile, BP continues to claim that it is only liable for 2.45 million barrels under the Clean Water Act as some of the crude oil was skimmed from the sea. However, the court has reached the 3.19 million barrels figure after taking the oil skimming into consideration.
The 2010 Deepwater Horizon accident in the Gulf of Mexico had claimed 11 lives and led to the worst offshore oil spill in US history. The Deepwater Horizon rig that was drilling the Macondo well sank two days after the April 20, 2010 explosion and led to an oil spill of millions of gallons that impacted beaches and the fishing sector.
The well was finally capped nearly three months later on July 15, 2010. The spill is considered the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry.
The disaster sparked thousands of lawsuits against BP, as well as rig owner Transocean Ltd and Halliburton Co. The two rig owners were also found to be negligent in the phase I trial, however, they were not as responsible as BP.
Judge Barbier had found that BP was responsible for 67% of the spill, Transocean, the owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig, was blamed for 30% and Halliburton. which did the cementing work on the rig, for 3%.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
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