U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier has approved two separate settlements for punitive damages worth a combined $1.24 billion involving Halliburton and Transocean and private claimants harmed by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
The settlements, initially reached in June 2016, will pay about $903 million to a “New Class” of claimants including commercial fishermen, and other groups that were part of certain claims categories involving punitive damages under general maritime law.
The settlements also pay about $338 million to an assigned claims class, including several hundred thousand businesses that previously filed economic loss claims as a result of the BP oil spill. The assigned claims cover those that BP lodged against its Deepwater Horizon partners Transocean and Halliburton as part of a $9.2 billion settlement the energy giant reached in 2012 resolving economic and property damages.
BP has also paid about $13 billion in economic and medical claims as part of an uncapped settlement in addition to a $20 billion settlement resolving economic and environmental claims filed by federal, state, and local governments.
Sources: Law360 and Nola.com
