The US federal judge approved fine in BP’s oil spill settlement happened in the Gulf of Mexico, Agence France-Presse reports Tuesday, January 29. Under the terms of the agreement BP is to pay a record $4.5 billion in criminal penalties.
The agreement was signed in November 2012. The company partly acknowledged its guilt and agreed to pay the fine of $4.5 billion to stop prosecution from the US government. On January 29, the federal judge approved the agreement.
Now BP has to resolve civil claims against the company due to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. The environmental damages may go up to $18 billion. A non-jury trial is scheduled on 25 February in New Orleans.
Apart from this, some BP’s employees face accusation of manslaughter of 11 people who died during the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.
At first, BP partly admitted to being guilty conferring part of responsibility on company-operator of Transocean platform and subcontractor Halliburton.
Transocean agreed to pay $1.4 billion fin, however it still argues it as the company believes that BP must accept full liability for the disaster.
