The value of BP Plc’s settlement with the U.S. government and five Gulf states over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill will rise to $20.8 billion, an increase of $2 billion from an agreement reached in July, said the U.S. Department of Justice.
The settlement is the largest in the department’s history and resolves the government’s civil claims under the Clean Water Act and Oil Pollution Act as well as economic damage claims from regional authorities, according to a statement Monday.
“BP is receiving the punishment it deserves, while also providing critical compensation for the injuries it caused to the environment and the economy of the Gulf region,” U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in the statement.
The London-based company will pay $700 million for injuries and losses not yet known related to spill and $350 million for the reimbursement of assessment costs, according to a consent decree filed at the U.S. District Court in New Orleans. The company will also pay $167.4 million to the U.S. for some non- reimbursed costs related to the spill and $82.6 million for lost royalties owed the U.S. on spilled oil.
The settlement takes BP’s total budget for the spill to more than $54 billion, five years after an explosion at the Macondo well polluted the Gulf of Mexico and forced the company to shed more than third of its market value and assets to pay for the accident.
–With assistance from Del Quentin Wilber in Washington and Margaret Cronin Fisk in Detroit.