Halliburton Will Pay $1.1 Billion to Settle Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster Lawsuits

September 2nd, 2014

Bargains.

Via: The Verge:

Halliburton has agreed to pay $1.1 billion to settle much of its part in 2010’s Gulf of Mexico oil rig disaster. The incident killed 11 people, and resulted in the largest oil spill in this history of the US after offshore drilling rig Deepwater Horizon exploded. Halliburton was responsible for cement mixture used to seal the oil well, which ended up being faulty.

The agreement, which requires approval from a federal judge, covers claims against Halliburton as part of BP’s 2012 class action settlement, as well as punitive damages claims on property and in the commercial fishing industry. The agreement also removes Halliburton’s liability for compensating members of the 2012 BP settlement. That money is going into a trust, while other parts of the litigation involving companies like BP and rig operator Transocean continue to work their way through appeals.

The settlement is separate from a $200,000 fine the company paid to the US Department of Justice for destroying evidence related to the incident. According to the Justice Department, Halliburton ordered its employees to destroy simulations for structural tolerance of the concrete mix with system of metal collars. The number of collars, as well as the cement mix, could have made the difference in the outcome of the disaster, investigators found.

One Response to “Halliburton Will Pay $1.1 Billion to Settle Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster Lawsuits”

  1. Eileen says:

    It’s just my opinion, but this fine is probably chump change for Haliburton. Not even sure if the company would be a going concern if it weren’t for all of their government contracts, Haliburton has had a funny way of avoiding having to pay up on all of their audit findings since way back to the U.S. bombing of Boznia-Hergovinia. And don’t forget, on 9/11 all of those accountants who knew why the books were off about a trillion got bombed and fried at the Pentagon, along with their records. I’ll bet that there were some findings on Haliburton in there.
    It is interesting about the concrete used on the Macando well. If Haliburton would have spent a few extra bucks on Evercrete it would have dried in minutes. Cheap, sorry, negligent bastards. Future generations (if humans manage to exist that long), are going to be totally perplexed that humans could be so oblivious as to how these morons, in their quest for oil, pretty much destroyed an ecosystem – the way of life for entities from a microscopic organism all the way up to the fisherman, and whales and they only get fined $1 billion. Maybe we should feel grateful for that? I think 20-40-60-80 or 100 billion would be more like it.

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