BP has finally capped the financial costs of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig blow out that caused the deaths of 11 workers – and nearly sank the global oil giant.
Almost exactly six years to the day of the accident (on 15 July 2010), BP has announced that following ‘significant progress’ in resolving outstanding claims arising from the accident and oil spill, it can now reliably estimate all of its remaining material liabilities in connection with the disaster, regarded as the biggest accidental oil spill in the industry’s history.
As a result, BP expects to take an after-tax non-operating charge of around $2.5 billion in its second quarter 2016 results. This charge is expected to include a pre-tax non-operating charge associated with the oil spill of around $5.2 billion.
This would bring the total cumulative pre-tax charge relating to the Deepwater Horizon incident to $61.6 billion.
Brian Gilvary, BP chief financial officer said: “A year ago, we reached agreements to settle outstanding federal, state and local government claims arising from Deepwater Horizon. In the months since, we’ve made much further progress in resolving outstanding claims arising from the incident.
“We can estimate all the material liabilities remaining from the incident and have a clear plan for managing these costs with certainty going forward.”
Pixie Energy is an incubator and a facilitator of strategic research and project work, focusing on energy regulation, policy and markets at the local and national level. Find out more about Pixie Energy