Last Friday, U.S.
District Judge Carl Barbier gave final approval to BP PLC's settlement with
businesses and people who lost money because of the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf
of Mexico. BP has estimated it will pay $7.8 billion to resolve more than
100,000 claims by businesses and individuals from the nation's worst offshore
oil spill. The settlement has no cap; the company could end up paying more or
less.
Judge Barbier approved
the settlement in a 125-page ruling issued Friday evening. "None of the
objections, whether filed on the objections docket or elsewhere, have shown the
Settlement to be anything other than fair, reasonable, and adequate," he
wrote. Barbier preliminarily approved the settlement in May.
The infamous April
2010 blowout of BP's Macondo well triggered an explosion that killed 11 rig
workers. The well spilled more than 200 million gallons, or roughly 4.9 million
barrels, of oil into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico over 87 days, until it
was permanently sealed. A camera at the well-head broadcasted a live feed of
the disaster to the world.
Barbier has not
ruled on a medical settlement for cleanup workers and others who say exposure
to oil or dispersants made them sick — just on economic and property damage
claims. The agreement covers people and businesses in Louisiana, Mississippi,
Alabama and some coastal counties in eastern Texas and western Florida, and in
adjacent Gulf waters and bays.
As part of the
settlement, BP will pay $2.3 billion to cover seafood-related claims by
commercial fishing vessel owners, captains and deckhands. That fund is the
settlement's only cap on damages. That figure is about five times the average
industry gross revenue from 2007 to 2009 and, according to evidence provided,
more than 19 times the revenue the industry lost in 2010.
While US
District Judge Carl Barbier approved the deal in May, he held a “fairness hearing”
in November, which weighed objections from 13,000 claimants who challenged the
settlement. The hearing served to resolve some of the oil company’s liability
for the Macondo well blowout. The blown out Macondo well gushed about After
Judge Barbier gave preliminary approval in May, thousands of people opted out
of the settlement to pursue their cases individually.
Still unresolved are
environmental damage claims brought by the federal government and Gulf Coast
states against BP and its partners on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, and
claims against Switzerland-based rig owner Transocean Ltd., and Houston-based
cement contractor Halliburton.
There is a trial scheduled
for 2013 which will identify causes of BP's well blowout and assign percentages
of fault to the companies involved in the economic and environmental disaster.
