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The BP Oil Rig Explosion
April 20, 2010: An explosion and fire on the BP-operated drilling rig Deepwater Horizon kills 11 workers. Thousands of gallons of oil begin gushing into the Gulf of Mexico from the blown-out well. -
First lawsuit brought against BP
A Louisiana fishing charter boat operator sues on behalf of the state’s $2.6 billion industry, one of the first of thousands of litigants against companies involved in the rig project, including states and the federal government. -
BP agrees to pay for damages
BP agrees to put about $20 billion into a fund to pay damages resulting from the Gulf spill, with claims administered by Kenneth Feinberg, the lawyer who oversaw executive compensation for the U.S. government’s financial bailout. Less than two months after the spill began, more than 225 lawsuits in 11 states had been filed by businesses, individuals and investors over the disaster. -
The first claims program is established
BP administers a claims program to compensate businesses and individuals that it thinks were affected by the oil spill. BP hands out checks in the amount of $5,000 for individuals and $25,000 for businesses in order to placate those affected. These recipients are required to sign a "covenant not to sue", signing away their rights to any future settlement. -
Coast Guard caps oil well
87 days after the oil rig explodes BP and the Coast Guard successfully cap the blown- out well, stopping a geyser of oil that gushed more than 4 million barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico over 85 days. Lawsuits tied to the disaster exceed 300. -
Claims consolidated before one court
A panel of judges orders that all claims tied to the disaster be consolidated before one judge, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans. -
More lawsuits brought against BP
Businesses and individuals suing BP and other companies involved in the spill win the judge’s approval to seek punitive damages in pursuing claims of economic and environmental losses. BP and the other companies claimed the U.S. Oil Pollution Act prevented plaintiffs from collecting punitive damages. Barbier rules the statute is “silent as to the availability of punitive damages” and plaintiffs can pursue such claims under maritime law. Barbier dismisses economic loss claims by individuals and b -
Second Settlement Program Established
BP and a steering committee of lawyers representing spill victims reach an estimated $7.8 billion settlement to resolve most private claims for property damage, economic loss and medical injuries, postponing the March 5 start of the trial to apportion liability for oil-spill damages. The settlement doesn’t resolve BP’s risk of pollution fines under the U.S. Clean Water Act, natural resources damages assessments, claims by state and local governments, casinos, financial institutions, individuals -
Settlement final approval
Judge Barbier gives final approval to the economic portion of BP’s $7.8 billion settlement with the plaintiffs’ steering committee, resolving most business and individual-loss claims from the spill. -
BP agrees to pay more
BP increases the estimated cost of its economic and medical settlement by $680 million to $8.5 billion, based on increased costs for administering the settlement and on the claims administrator’s interpretation of some terms that were “contrary to some of BP’s previous assumptions,” according to BP’s fourth-quarter earnings report. The company says in the same SEC filing that it had received more than $34 billion in spill-related damage claims from state and local governments, which the company -
Judge refuses to block BP settlement payouts
A federal judge rejects BP's request to block what could be billions of dollars in settlement payouts to businesses that claim the company's 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico cost them money.
