Tagged: BP oil spill

Relatives of workers killed in the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion are sharing their stories with the judge who will decide whether to accept a plea deal that calls for BP PLC to pay a record $4.5 billion in penalties for the 2010 disaster.

Wednesday is the deadline for victims to submit written statements about BP's plea agreement with the Justice Department to U.S. District Judge Sarah Vance. The judge has scheduled a Jan. 29 hearing where she will either accept or reject the deal.

A federal judge has agreed to postpone the trial of a former BP engineer charged with deleting text messages about the company's response to the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Kurt Mix's trial was scheduled to start Feb. 25, but U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval Jr. moved it to June 10 after conferring with defense attorneys and prosecutors on Monday. Duval agreed to give both sides more time to prepare.

Berwick, La. will hire outside counsel to represent the town in litigation seeking payments from BP PLC for economic damage during the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Daily Review reports the resolution, approved by the Town Council this past week, allows the town to retain lawyers Sam Gabb of Plauche, Smith & Nieset and Russell Stutes Jr. of Stutes and Lavergne. They will notify BP under the Oil Pollution Act of claims to recover sales tax losses because of the spill.

BP has urged a federal judge to rule the company can't be penalized for millions of gallons of oil that spewed from its blown-out well but was captured before it could spill into the Gulf of Mexico.

A court filing Friday by BP says the federal government overestimated the size of the spill because workers captured more than 34 million gallons of crude and either burned it or shipped it to shore.