BP May Pay Billions More in Oil Spill Claims After Deal

Bloomberg reports that the $4.5bn agreement last Thursday resolving federal charges and civil claims by the Securities and Exchange Commission left the company at risk for as much as $17.6bn in potential fines from alleged violations of the Clean Water Act and demands by the U.S. and Gulf states for enough money to restore the region’s coastline and waters to their condition before the spill.

Europe’s second-biggest oil company will face resistance from both state and federal authorities in trying to resolve the remaining pollution violations and natural resource damages claims before trial, said Garret Graves, chairman of Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. Both sets of claims will “easily be in the tens of billions of dollars,” Graves said in a phone interview.

BP may nevertheless escape a federal contracting ban as it tries to rebuild its reputation. The company, the Pentagon’s biggest fuel supplier with awards valued at about $1.35bn in 2011, said it hasn’t been informed about a so-called contracting death sentence.

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BP May Pay Billions More in Oil Spill Claims After Deal

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