British oil company BP Plc pleaded guilty yesterday to criminal charges relating to its 2010 oil spill and agreed to pay an extra $4.5 billion on top of the tens of billions it is already paying out.
BP said it would plead guilty to 11 felony counts of misconduct or neglect relating to the death of 11 workers, one misdemeanor count under the Clean Water Act, one misdemeanor count under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and one felony count of obstruction of Congress.
The company’s reputation was ravaged two and a half years ago after an explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 workers and sent millions of barrels of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico.
The blast on April 20, 2010, sank the rig and unleashed the biggest marine oil spill in the industry’s history — and what has widely acknowledged to be the worst US environmental disaster ever.
Earlier this year, BP reached an agreement to settle claims from fishermen and others affected by the disaster for $7.8 billion, but it must be approved by a federal judge and does not affect claims brought by the government.
Over the past two years, BP has so far sold noncore assets totalling more than $35 billion to help fund massive compensation costs arising from the tragedy.
BP pays record $ 4.5 bn penalty for Gulf oil spill
BP pays record $ 4.5 bn penalty for Gulf oil spill
India seals $3bn LNG agreement with UAE
- Leaders hold talks to strengthen trade, defense ties
NEW DELHI, DUBAI: India signed a $3 billion deal on Monday to buy liquefied natural gas from the UAE, making it the Gulf country’s top customer, as the leaders of both countries held talks to strengthen trade and defense ties.
The agreement was signed during a very brief two-hour visit to India by UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan for talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
They pledged to double bilateral trade to $200 billion in six years and form a strategic defense partnership.
Abu Dhabi state firm ADNOC Gas will supply 0.5 million tonnes of LNG a year to India’s Hindustan Petroleum Corp. for 10 years, the companies said.
ADNOC Gas said the agreement brings the total value of its contracts with India to over $20 billion.
“India is now the UAE’s largest customer and a very important part of ADNOC Gas’ LNG strategy,” the company said.
The UAE is India’s third largest trading partner and Sheikh Mohammed was accompanied by a government delegation that included his defense and foreign ministers. The two sides signed a letter of intent to work toward forming a strategic defense partnership, India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told reporters.
Misri, however, said that the signing of the letter of intent with the UAE does not mean that India will get involved in regional conflicts.
“Our involvement on the defense and security front with a country from the region does not necessarily lead to the conclusion that we will get involved in particular ways in the conflicts of the region,” he said.
