A federal judge in the US state of Louisiana has authorized final approval to an estimated USD 20 billion compensation over the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, determining years of litigation over what caused one of the biggest ever environmental disasters, Al Jazeera reported.
The settlement, first announced in July last year, includes USD 5.5 billion in civil Clean Water Act penalties and billions more to cover environmental damage and other claims by the five US states along the Gulf coast, including Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Louisiana.
The money is to be paid out over roughly 16 years for what has been called the biggest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry.
The US Justice Department has estimated that the settlement will cost the oil giant as much as USD 20.8 billion, the largest environmental settlement in US history as well as the largest ever civil settlement with a single entity.
US District Judge Carl Barbier, who approved the settlement, had set the stage with an earlier ruling that BP had been "grossly negligent" in the offshore rig explosion which killed 11 workers and caused a 134-million-gallon spill.
In 2012, BP reached a similar settlement agreement with private attorneys for businesses and residents who claim the spill cost them money.
That deal, which did not have a cap, led to a protracted court battle over subsequent payouts to businesses. A court-supervised claims administrator is still processing many of these claims.
BP has estimated that its costs related to the spill, including its initial cleanup work and the various settlements and criminal and civil penalties, will exceed USD 53 billion.
US Attorney General Loretta Lynch praised the settlement.
"Today's action holds BP accountable with the largest environmental penalty of all time while launching one of the most extensive environmental restoration efforts ever undertaken," Lynch said in a statement.