October 5, 2015

BP agreed to a settlement with the US and the five Gulf states worth $20.8 billion to resolve civil claims arising from the April 2010 Macondo well blowout and the massive oil spill that followed in the Gulf of Mexico.  The global settlement resolves the governments’ civil claims under the Clean Water Act and natural resources damage claims under the Oil Pollution Act, as well as economic damage claims of the five Gulf states and local governments.  It is the largest settlement with a single entity in the DOJ’s history.  The destruction of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig sent more than three million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico over a 3 month period, resulting in oil slicks that extended across more than 43,000 square miles, affecting water quality and exposing aquatic plants and wildlife to harmful chemicals.  Oil was deposited onto at least 400 square miles of the sea floor and washed up onto more than 1,300 miles of shoreline from Texas to Florida.  DOJ

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