The New Orleans District Judge Carl J. Barbier has given a 30-day deadline to BP to pay $1 billion in compensation to government entities of local states which were impacted by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
In his ruling, Judge Barbier said that the court was advised that BP reviewed and was satisfied with releases and associated documents returned by the vast majority of local governmental entities and therefore, BP accepted the releases.
The $1 billion compensation payments are a part of $18.7 billion environmental fine BP agreed to pay earlier this month.
In addition to $1 billion in compensation, the states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida will receive additional $7.1 billion from BP over 15 years for natural resource damages (NRD).
In January 2015, the court ruled that the amount of oil spilled in the Deepwater Horizon disaster was 3.19 million barrels, one million barrels less than suggested by the federal government. BP claimed that the amount of oil spilled was around 2.45 million barrels.
By Pita Ochai
[divider]