On the cusp of trial over the catastrophic 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, phalanxes of lawyers, executives and public officials have spent the waning days in settlement talks. Holed up in small groups inside law offices, war rooms and hotel suites in New Orleans and Washington, they are trying to put a number on what BP and its partners in the doomed Macondo well project should pay to make up for the worst offshore spill in U.S. history.
It is a complex equation, and the answer is proving elusive.
The federal government, Gulf states, plaintiffs’ attorneys, BP PLC, rig owner Transocean Ltd. and cementer Halliburton Energy Services Inc. have been in simultaneous and separate negotiations in New Orleans, according to a person with direct knowledge of the talks and others who had been briefed on them.
Trial is set for Monday, and by Friday, no deal had been reached, several people familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The biggest stumbling block appeared to be the sheer size and sprawling uncertainty over the unprecedented dollar amounts at stake.
Specific terms of $7.8bn settlement between oil firm and committee representing plaintiffs yet to be released.
Al Jazeera, March 3
Oil giant BP and a committee representing plaintiffs suing the company over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill have reached an agreement, a federal judge has said.
As a result of the agreement, which will be filed with the court for approval, the trial that was scheduled to begin on Monday has been postponed for a second time, Judge Carl Barbier said.
No new date was immediately set. There also was no mention in his order of anything about the status of BP’s talks and the federal government, involved states or individual plaintiffs not represented by the committee.
The proposed settlement “represents significant progress toward resolving issues from the Deepwater Horizon accident and contributing further to economic and environmental restoration efforts along the Gulf Coast,” Bob Dudley, BP’s chief executive officer said in a statement.
Judge Barbier issued the order to adjourn the case indefinitely “because such a settlement would likely result in a realignment of the parties in this litigation and require substantial changes to the current Phase I trial plan, and in order to allow the parties to reassess their respective positions.”
Nearly two years after BP’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, fishermen and scientists say things are getting worse.
Al Jazeera, By Dahr Jamail, March 5
New Orleans – Hundreds of thousands of people living along the US Gulf Coast have hung their economic lives on lawsuits against BP.
Fishermen, in particular, are seeing their way of life threatened with extinction – both from lack of an adequate legal settlement and collapsing fisheries.
One of these people, Greg Perez, an oyster fisherman in the village of Yscloskey, Louisiana, has seen a 75 per cent decrease in the amount of oysters he has been able to catch.
“Since the spill, business has been bad,” he said. “Sales and productivity are down, our state oyster grounds are gone, and we are investing personal money to rebuild oyster reefs, but so far it’s not working.”