BP Oil Spill: US Gulf States To Discuss Potential Settlement In Deepwater Horizon Disaster, Say Sources

Officials from four U.S. Golf Coast states are expected to hold news conferences on Thursday to discuss a potential settlement related to the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, sources told local New Orleans media Wednesday. The details of the announcement were unknown, but it was believed to have something to do with the April 20, 2010, Deepwater Horizon disaster that killed 11 rig workers and blew the cap off a well that ultimately gushed hundreds of millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf over five months.

Attorneys general in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi said they would hold news conferences in their respective states Thursday morning, according to WVUE-DT. Officials provided few specifics, only commenting that “state leaders will make an important announcement at a news conference on Thursday, July 2, at 8 a.m.”

The announcement comes three days after the Supreme Court rejected appeals by BP and Anadarko, which co-owned the Deepwater Horizon rig, over penalties related to federal pollution laws. The ruling could open BP up to potentially billions of dollars in fines.

In September, a federal judge ruled that BP was liable for the spill under the Clean Water Act and that the environmental disaster was the result of gross negligence. U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier put the maximum fine at $13.7 billion. It was thought that BP would want to settle because of uncertainty over what the final figure might be, according to WVUE.