A U.S. district judge in New Orleans has accepted a $4 billion criminal guilty plea by BP plc over its role in the catastrophic 2010 oil spill that fouled the Gulf of Mexico. But BP’s lawyers still have plenty of work to do managing the company’s massive liabilities over the disaster.
In November BP entered guilty pleas for felony counts of obstruction of Congress and for “seaman’s manslaughter” for the death of 11 workers, and also pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of negligent conduct under the Clean Water Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. On Tuesday Judge Sarah S. Vance approved the agreements, which include $4 billion in penalties and fines. Under the terms of the deal, BP will pay a record $1.26 billion criminal fine and submit to monitoring of its future drilling operations.
