A federal judge in New Orleans on Tuesday approved an agreement between BP plc and the Department of Justice (DOJ) for the company to plead guilty to 14 criminal charges, including manslaughter, and pay more than $4 billion in criminal fines related to the Macondo deepwater well blowout in April 2010.

BP had agreed in November to pay more than $4.5 billion in fines to settle the criminal claims from the well blowout and rig explosion, which killed 11 men and destroyed Transocean Ltd.’s Deepwater Horizon platform (see Daily GPI, Nov. 16, 2012).

Under the agreement, BP pleaded guilty to 11 felony counts of misconduct or neglect of ships officers relating to the 11 deaths. It also agreed to plead guilty to one misdemeanor count under the Clean Water Act (CWA); one misdemeanor count under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act; and one felony count of obstruction of Congress.

Thirteen of the 14 criminal charges pertained to the incident itself and were based on the “negligent misinterpretation of the negative pressure test conducted on board the Deepwater Horizon,” BP said. “BP acknowledged this misinterpretation more than two years ago when it released its internal investigation report” (see Daily GPI, Sept. 9, 2010).

Dozens of people requested the plea agreement be rejected, according to letters sent to U.S. District Court Judge Sarah S. Vance of the Eastern District of Louisiana (United States of America v. BP Exploration and Production Inc., No. 12-292). Some wanted more financial compensation, while others wanted a stronger punishment.

In their argument for Vance to approve the settlement, BP lawyers filed an apology with the court that said the company “deeply regrets the tragic loss of life caused” by the blowout and explosion “as well as the impact of the spill on the Gulf Coast region.”

If Vance had rejected the agreement, BP would have faced a lengthy trial and possibly more penalties. BP already has paid more than $24 billion for various settlements and in clean-up efforts.

Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine, the top BP managers aboard the Deepwater Horizon when the blowout occurred, face manslaughter charges in connection with the 11 deaths. David Rainey, a former BP vice president, has been charged with obstruction of Congress and making false statements for understating the rate of oil spilling from Macondo before it was plugged. Also, BP engineer Kurt Mix previously was charged with obstructing justice for deleting text messages about BP’s estimates of the spill flow rate.

The settlement Tuesday does not end BP’s legal troubles. It still faces potential civil fines, with DOJ and BP still unable to come to terms. BP faces a civil trial beginning Feb. 24 in New Orleans to resolve the civil litigation.

BP also still faces potential fines of $5-21 billion for penalties under the CWA, based on DOJ’s estimate that 4.9 million bbl was released from the Macondo well. If BP is found to have been grossly negligent, the higher fines would apply.

However, BP argued in a court filing earlier this month that government spill estimates are too high. U.S. District Judge Carl J. Barbier, who is handling the multi-district litigation, is to decide whether BP’s cleanup of an estimated 810,000 bbl of escaped oil from Macondo be counted toward any CWA fines. A ruling in BP’s favor could reduce fines by $891 million to $3.5 billion.

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