Sponsorship Link
BP's 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion that killed 11 workers and fouled the Gulf of Mexico for months is finally headed to court. On Monday, a federal judge in New Orleans is scheduled to gavel the case to order.
/
BP's Gulf Disaster Goes to Court; Anadarko, Transocean Also Could Pay Billions in Damages Watch Video
The defendants are well-known to the public: BP, Britain's top energy company; Anadarko Petroleum, one of the largest natural gas companies in the U.S., Triton, an oil field service company and Transocean, which operated the ill-fated rig.
Halliburton is being sued by BP in a separate suit to ensure, BP says, that every company involved maintains some level of responsibility for the spill.
The U.S. Department of Justice has charged the defendants with civil penalties under the Clean Water Act and unlimited liability under the Oil Pollution Act for spilling 5 million barrels of crude oil for weeks into the Gulf of Mexico between April 20 and July 2010.
Must Read
Under the Clean Water Act, defendants can be fined as much as $1,100 per barrel of oil for negligence. If U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier finds BP and the other defendants were grossly negligent, they could be fined $4,300 per barrel of oil spilled.
Follow us
That could bring the total payout to as much as $21.5 billion.
Besides costing the lives of 11 employees of Transocean, the spill was a catastrophe for marine life in the Gulf, spoiling livelihoods of the fishing, tourism and travel sectors from Florida to Texas. The spill was probably the worst ever for an industry now ambitiously targeting the world's offshore oil and gas fields.
The previous catastrophe most likened to the BP Horizon disaster was the Exxon Valdez tanker spill of 1989, which spilled 32 million gallons into Alaskan waters.
The administrator of the Sept. 11, 2001, settlement funds, Kenneth Feinberg, was named head of funds that so far have paid out an estimated $6 billion to Gulf spill victims.
How liable are BP, Anadarko, Transocean, and Triton Asset Leasing, an oil field service company, for the millions of gallons of crude that spewed into the Gulf between April 20 and July 2010?
The U.S. government asserts they are liable for civil and federal penalties. What each party might have to pay will be determined as the trial progresses. That is unless the defendants broker a last-minute settlement.
David Guest, head of Earth Justice's Florida office who initially filed environmental claims against BP before the environmental group was removed from the legal proceedings, said he'd surprised if the companies didn't settle before Monday.
Guest estimated a total settlement could be valued at $40 billion.
Whether or not that money includes the $20 billion already put aside for claims remains to be seen, the lawyer said.
