Americas News
Deepwater Horizon Owner in 1.4B Settlement
The owner of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, the site of the 2010 explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, has agreed to pay $400 million in criminal penalties and a $1 billion civil fine in a settlement with the U.S. government, the U.S. Department of Justice has said.
The Swiss-based Transocean, which owned the rig leased by BP, pleaded guilty to violating the nation's Clean Water Act and agreed to improve its safety and emergency response systems.
"This resolution of criminal allegations and civil claims against Transocean brings us one significant step closer to justice for the human, environmental and economic devastation wrought by the Deepwater Horizon disaster," said U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
The explosion on April 20, 2010, killed 11 workers and caused major environmental damage in the area.
"Transocean's rig crew accepted the direction of BP well site leaders to proceed in the face of clear danger signs at a tragic cost to many of them," said assistant attorney general Lanny Breuer.
The money will go mainly toward environmental projects and efforts to prevent future spills.
Barclays analysts said the settlement amount was less than expected.
In a November settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, BP Exploration and Production Inc. agreed to pay $4 billion in criminal fees and penalties - the largest criminal settlement in U.S. history - and to plead guilty to felony manslaughter.
BP said it also resolved securities claims with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for $525 million.
BP has also spent $14 billion cleaning up the spill and compensating local people, according to the BBC, and it still faces a civil trial in New Orleans, which is scheduled for February.
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board has said both BP and Transocean had inadequate safety rules, although the two companies disagreed about who had been in charge of interpreting a test that could have warned workers about problems on the rig.
A federal judge must still finalise the Transocean settlement.
