BP, Plaintiffs Reach Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Settlement
BP will pay an estimated $7.8 billion to settle a lawsuit over the massive 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill with attorneys representing thousands of individual plaintiffs and businesses on the eve of a major trial in a New Orleans federal court, the company said Friday night.
BP said it expects to pay the settlement from the money remaining in a $20 billion escrow account, or trust fund, it set up during the spill to resolve individual and business claims without going to court.
The settlement amount includes $2.3 billion to help resolve economic loss claims related to the gulf seafood industry, the company said. The rest of the money paid out by BP will be determined by two separate sets of formulas and matrices, one for economic claims and one for medical claims. The process will be court supervised. BP also agreed to provide medical consultations for the next 21 years to people with health-related claims and to pay $105 million to improve health care in gulf communities.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs said that BP had agreed to pay all legitimate claims, and that the figure BP gave was an estimate only. “The settlement is to be fully funded by BP, with no cap on the amount BP will pay,” the Plaintiffs Steering Committee said in a statement.
The deal is subject to approval by New Orleans District Court Judge Carl Barbier, who issued a statement Friday night that the trial will be postponed again as other parties reassess their strategies in the case.
The London-based oil giant said the settlement, reached with the Plaintiffs Steering Committee in the multi-district litigation, would “resolve the substantial majority of legitimate economic loss and medical claims” stemming from the accident.