5th Sep 2014 05:39
LONDON (Alliance News) - BP PLC Thursday said it will immediately appeal a ruling by a US court stating that it had acted with gross negligence in the lead-up to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
US District Judge Carl Barbier ruled that the company was grossly negligent, and that the company's activities at the Macondo well amounted to wilful misconduct. However, BP said it "strongly disagrees" with the decision, and believes that the ruling is not supported by the evidence at trial.
"The law is clear that proving gross negligence is a very high bar that was not met in this case," the company said in a statement.
The court has not yet ruled on the penalty to BP, or the number of barrels spilled. However the ruling could just under quadruple the fine enforced on the company under the Clean Water Act.
Under the act the maximum penalty is USD1,100 per barrel where the court finds simple negligence, and USD4,300 per barrel where it finds gross negligence or wilful misconduct.
BP said it will seek to show that its conduct "merits a penalty that is less than the applicable maximum after application of the statutory factors".
It is reviewing the decision, and will issue a further statement as soon as possible, BP said.
The ruling also found Transocean Ltd and Halliburton Co responsible, although less responsible than BP, to which Barbier apportioned 67% of the blame. Halliburton settled a majority of its claims related to the spill for USD1.1 billion Tuesday.
BP increased its provision for litigation related to the Gulf spill by USD260 million during its second quarter, taking its total pre-tax charge for the incident to USD43.0 billion to date. BP has settled claims of more than USD28 billion so far. Transocean made claim settlements of around USD1.4 billion in 2013.
In June, BP approached a US court seeking repayment from several companies for part of the compensation they received related to the spill, claiming the companies were allowed to inflate their losses by the administrator in charge of processing the claims.
The explosion at the Deepwater Horizon rig, which occurred in April 2010, killed 11 workers and triggered the worst offshore oil spill in the US.
Shares in BP closed down 5.9% at 455.00 pence Thursday following the ruling.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
BP