BP has reached a settlement with Anadarko, one of its partners on the Macondo well that caused America’s worst offshore oil spill in 2010. Anadarko has agreed to pay BP $4bn to settle all claims between the two groups. BP had sought $6.1bn for Anadarko’s alleged share of costs.
What the commentators said
Worry over BP’s liability for the disaster is starting to dissipate, said Guy Chazan in The Wall Street Journal. Anadarko had maintained that it wasn’t liable for any damages or costs because BP had shown gross negligence, or wilful misconduct, in its handling of the well. But it dropped this charge as part of the settlement.
Meanwhile, a series of studies of the spill over the past few months have suggested that BP wasn’t the only party to blame. All this implies that once all the litigation is over, BP will not be found to have been grossly negligent. This makes a huge difference to the ultimate cost, as gross negligence would make fines under the Clean Water Act alone almost four times higher than the minimum penalty.
The upshot is that “BP is moving away from the threat of gross negligence and getting back to business in the Gulf of Mexico”, said Robin West of the consultancy PFC Energy. It seems likely the final bill will undershoot its $28bn estimate, said Andrew Peaple in The Wall Street Journal. “There is a lot of legal wrangling left,” said Lex in the FT, and the share-price recovery is far from complete. But “BP has turned a corner with this settlement, putting it in a better position to close the valuation gap with peers”.