Alabama and Transocean Make Deepwater Horizon Deal
Alabama Governor Robert Bentley has announced that Alabama has agreed to a settlement with Transocean Offshore Deepwater Drilling, which owned the Deepwater Horizon. Alabama will receive $20 million.
“The State of Alabama suffered tremendous environmental and economic losses because of the BP/Deepwater Horizon oil spill in April 2010,” Bentley said. “This agreement with Transocean is another positive step forward as we continue to recover from the effects of such a significant environmental and economic disaster.”
On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon floating drilling rig owned by Transocean and used by BP, experienced a well destabilization that ultimately led to an explosion causing catastrophic fires, a leak of over three million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, and the death of 11 people.
As a result, Alabama’s Gulf Coast and the surrounding area experienced significant environmental and economic damages, as did the State of Alabama, says Bentley.
Earlier this year, an agreement in principle was reached with BP that resulted in an agreement to pay the State of Alabama $2.3 billion, with $1.3 billion going directly to the Gulf Coast region and $1 billion to be paid to the state.
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In September 2014, U.S. District Court Judge Carl Barbier ruled that BP had committed gross negligence that led to the disaster. Barbier assigned the company 67 percent of the fault for the accident. Switzerland-based rig owner Transocean was assigned 30 percent of the fault and Texas-based services provider Halliburton was assigned three percent of the fault.
The Transocean settlement will go into the State General Fund.