Scientists from the University of Aberdeen heading for the North Atlantic to test a pioneering piece of research equipment that they believe will help improve how deep ocean ecosystems function and respond to a major oil spill.
A federal judge in New Orleans has granted final approval to an estimated $20 billion (£14billion) settlement over the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
A federal judge in New Orleans has granted final approval to an estimated $20 billion (£14billion) settlement over the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Five years on from the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the fallout from the world’s worst oil spill continued in 2015. Energy Voice looks back at some of the key developments that occurred this year.
Perhaps the only thing more egregious than the prosecution of former BP engineer Kurt Mix was the way that prosecution ended: with a whimper so barely audible you may have missed it.
Federal prosecutors dropped manslaughter charges against BP’s top two employees on the doomed oil rig that blew up in 2010, the latest setback for investigators probing the largest offshore oil spill in US history.
By By Jessica Resnick-Ault, Dmitry Zhdannikov and Terry Wade
In early May, with its legal options dwindling and investors impatient, BP saw a chance to negotiate what became a $18.7 billion settlement that ended five years of litigation over the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
An unexpected opportunity to secure a global deal that would wipe the slate clean of hundreds of claims and untold billions of dollar in penalties opened up when Chief Executive Bob Dudley met with Patrick Juneau, the lifelong Louisiana litigator who BP had panned for handing out "absurd" sums of money as part of a class settlement in 2012.
The British giant was ready to bury the hatchet after years of acrimony over payouts, which had ballooned to more than $10 billion. It had bigger problems: unresolved claims by the federal government, five Gulf of Mexico states and hundreds of local municipalities stemming from Macondo well blowout.
BP has claimed any gulf spill compensation payments by it should be less to reflect the oil price plunge.
The oil giant is currently in a legal wrangle over what civil penalties it should make following the Deepwater Horizon rig disaster in 2010.
The company said in legal filings before the final round of the case next month that penalties – which could beup to $18billion – would have a “very significant economic impact” on BP and its exploration and production business.
BP claims any future ruling should take into account the fall in the oil price, the company’s clean-up efforts and the environmental improvement in the Gulf of Mexico.
Halliburton has agreed to pay $1.1billion to settle a string of lawsuits filed against the firm in relation to its role in one of the most devastating offshore oil spills in US history.