Transocean Ltd. will pay more than $1.4 billion, including a $400 million criminal penalty, to settle all federal claims arising from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, according to a court filing.
Transocean will plead guilty to one count of violating the Clean Water Act, according to a consent decree between the company and the US filed yesterday in federal court in New Orleans.
Transocean, based in Switzerland, will pay $1 billion plus interest in civil penalties, according to the filing.
The US sued Transocean in 2010, alleging violations of federal pollution law.
Transocean was the owner and operator of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, which burned and sank in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010, killing 11 people, after BP’s Macondo well exploded, spilling millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf in one of the largest offshore oil spills in US history.