Oil flow from BP'S ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico, in this frame Grab captured from BP live video channel on July 11, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/BP/exhibitionLONDON/SAN FRANCISCO | Wed Feb 20, 2013 12: 12 pm EST
London/San Francisco (Reuters)-a u.s. judge ruled on Tuesday that BP Plc (BP.L) recovered from 810,000 barrels of oil spill 2010 site and that this amount should be exempted from certain penalties it may face, cutting the maximum fine of as much as $ 3.5 billion.
A few days before he led the spill related to the civil process to begin on February 25 in New Orleans, United States District Judge Carl Barbier considers these barrels, since "collected" during the spill. BP has tried this reduction the total penalty.
"" The Collected oil flowed from an underground tank, through a well, by preventing blow out and never came into contact with ambient sea water and was not released on the environment in any way, "the ruling said.
Earlier the British oil company said the United States Department of Justice supports your claim that the oil recovered directly from the leaking Macondo well should count when it comes to the fines that can be levied under the Clean Water Act, United States.
"Under the clean water Act, civil penalties shall be assessed only for the oil that has actually entered the environment and possibly damage caused," BP said in a statement on Tuesday.
BP repeated that the overall 4.9 million barrels spill forecast made by the Government of the United States in its claims against BP, including barrels recovered, is too high by 20 percent.
The maximum fine under the law is $ 4,300 per barrel, so the calculation based on 4.9 million barrels spilled would have forced BP to pay as much as $ 21 billion under the clean water Act, on top of all the other fines and penalties if BP is found guilty of "gross negligence."
Without gross negligence finding, the fine can be up to 1,100 US dollars per barrel, or $ 5.4 billion — so the potential fine was cut by almost $ 900 million with the decision on Tuesday.
Separately, Barbier signed on Tuesday $ 1 billion civil settlement between the Government of the United States and Transocean associated with the spill, which was struck last month. Transocean's deepwater Horizon rig was destroyed in a blowout.
Overall civil case under Barbier was in re: oil spill by the oil rig "deepwater horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, 20 April, 2010, No 10-Dr-02179 in United States District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana.
(Reporting by Andrew callus in London and Braden Reddall in San Francisco; editing of Hans-Jürgen Peters and Richard pullin)
