BP estimates cost of 2010 Gulf oil spill at $61.6 billion

July 14, 2016

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Oil giant BP PLC has put a final price tag on what its catastrophic Gulf of Mexico oil spill cost the company, and it's a hefty sum: $61.6 billion.

The company issued the estimate Thursday, the first time it has put a total cost on the catastrophe.

BP said it expects to spend a total of $44 billion after tax deductions are factored in. The new estimate included $5.2 billion in new pre-tax costs.

In 2010, one of the company's deep-sea wells blew out off the coast of Louisiana, leading to the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. Eleven rig workers were killed in the explosions and millions of gallons of oil spewed into the Gulf for 87 days.

BP said the cost estimate included all "remaining material liabilities."

March 11, 2016

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- A federal judge has ruled BP does not have to pay for economic losses other businesses suffered when the federal government shut down deep-water drilling in the wake of BP's catastrophic 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier issued his ruling late Thursday.

The Obama administration imposed a six-month drilling ban in the Gulf to prevent another disaster. The offshore industry called the moratorium a costly mistake.

Barbier's ruling came in a lawsuit brought by six companies involved in offshore drilling, but plaintiffs' lawyers said thousands of similar claims worth billions of dollars would be affected by the decision.

The case centered on whether BP was liable under the Oil Pollution Act for the loss of business caused by the moratorium.