On April 4, 2016, a federal court in New Orleans entered a consent decree resolving civil claims against BP arising from the April 20, 2010 Macondo well blowout and the massive oil spill that followed in the Gulf of Mexico.
The settlement resolves the U.S. government’s civil penalty claims under the Clean Water Act, the governments’ claims for natural resources damage claims under the Oil Pollution Act, and also implements a related settlement of economic damage claims of the Gulf States and local governments.
Taken together this resolution of civil claims is worth more than $20 billion and is the largest settlement with a single entity in the history of federal law enforcement.
Under the Consent Decree BP will pay a Clean Water Act civil penalty of $5.5 billion (plus interest), $8.1 billion in natural resource damages (this includes $1 billion BP already committed to pay for early restoration), up to an additional $700 million (some of which is in the form of accrued interest) for adaptive management or to address injuries to natural resources that are presently unknown but may come to light in the future, and $600 million for other claims, including claims under the False Claims Act, royalties, and reimbursement of natural resource damage assessment costs and other expenses due to the incident.
The consent decree, the motion to enter, and other informational documents are available at:
https://www.justice.gov/enrd/deepwater-horizon
Source: U.S. Department of Justice