(EPA)
NEW ORLEANS — BP said yesterday that it will pay $4.5 billion in a settlement with the US government over the disastrous 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and plead guilty to criminal charges related to the deaths of 11 workers and lying to Congress.
The day of reckoning comes more than two years after the nation’s worst offshore oil spill. The figure includes nearly $1.3 billion in criminal fines — the biggest criminal penalty in US history — along with payments to government entities.
A person familiar with the settlement said two BP employees will also face manslaughter charges over the 11 deaths in the oil-rig explosion that triggered the spill.
Up to now, the only person charged in the disaster was a former BP engineer who was arrested in April on obstruction-of-justice charges. He was accused of deleting text messages about the company’s response to the spill.
“We believe this resolution is in the best interest of BP and its shareholders,” said Carl-Henric Svanberg, BP chairman. “It removes two significant legal risks and allows us to vigorously defend the company against the remaining civil claims.”
The settlement, which is subject to approval by a federal judge, includes payments of nearly $2.4 billion to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, $350 million to the National Academy of Sciences and about $500 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC had accused BP of misleading investors by lowballing the amount of crude spewing from the well.
London-based BP said in a statement that the settlement does not cover any civil penalties the US government might seek under the Clean Water Act and other laws. Nor does it cover billions of dollars in claims brought by states, businesses and individuals, including fishermen, restaurants and property owners.
A federal judge in New Orleans is weighing a proposed $7.8 billion settlement between BP and more than 100,000 businesses and individuals who say they were harmed by the spill.
BP will plead guilty to 11 felony counts of misconduct or neglect of a ship’s officers, one felony count of obstruction of Congress and one misdemeanor count each under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Clean Water Act. The workers’ deaths were prosecuted under a provision of the Seaman’s Manslaughter Act.