BP Claims in Florida

One week after charged and arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a grand jury indicted former BP official Kurt Mix over obstruction of justice relating to the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Mix was charged for allegedly removing almost 300 messages containing the estimation of the rate at which crude was discharging from BP’s blown-out Macondo well following the blast in the company-operated Deepwater Horizon rig.

Mix resigned from the British oil company in 2012 January.

According to the indictment, Mix fiddled with his iPhone for keeping some details from a jury looking into the Gulf oil spill.

Mix has been freed on $100000 unsecured bond. If convicted, Mix might be imprisoned up to 20 years.

According to BCO Consulting, the company appointed by the U.S. Justice Department to independently audit BP Plc’s Gulf Coast Claims Facility, Kenneth Feinberg and his team have done a wonderful job despite some negligible errors.

GCCF was a $20 billion fund BP formed shortly after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster in April 2010, aiming to compensate the victims. Gulf residents and lawmakers were absolutely unhappy with the way GCCF handled their damages claims. Then the justice department ordered an independent audit to evaluate the performance of the facility.

The auditors discovered 10000 errors made by the facility. However, it is not a significant number, considering that GCCF has processed more than 1 million oil spill claims submitted by the Gulf individuals and businesses in 1.5 years, according to BCO.

Some ecological groups in the U.S. believe BP’s and the federal government’s recovery efforts in the Gulf of Mexico after the 2010 oil spill catastrophe are not up to the mark. The report card published by the groups 2 years after the disaster shows this.

The environmental groups include the Gulf Restoration Network (GRN), Asian Americans for Change, and the Sierra Club.

Though two years are over after the worst offshore oil spill in the history of U.S., Gulf fishermen are still struggling financially. The disaster severely affected their livelihoods and they are unable to pay their mounting bills.

The environmental groups say the legal system to decide BP plc’s liability for causing the disaster is to be watched cautiously.

“In case there is a settlement, it must ensure that the deal could be reopened for holding the oil giant accountable for any further impacts in the future,” a GRN representative said.

British oil giant BP and the team of lawyers representing the Gulf people and businesses have presented U.S. district court judge Carl Barbier with the terms of a proposed settlement on Wednesday for resolving the multibillion dollar claims for damages over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

The settlement parties are asking for the deal’s preliminary approval. Carl Barbier has not specified when he is going to rule on the filing.

According to BP estimates, it will have to pay around $7.8 billion to settle these claims filed by the private plaintiffs. The deal doesn’t cover the claims of Gulf Coast states and the U.S. government.

Although BP’s estimation is $7.8 billion, the deal does not have an upper limit on the sum of money the oil company has to pay.

Washington – A bipartisan bill to use BP fines over April 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill for restoring the Gulf of Mexico remains on hold in congress even though 2 years passed after the disaster.

The Restore Act is intended to send 80 percent of the Clean Water Act fines from BP and other parties involved in the oil spill disaster to the five states across the Gulf. The money will be eventually utilized for environmental and economic restoration projects and also for scientific studies.

Under present regulations, the BP fines will go to a trust which will help pay for future oil spills. But the supporters of the Restore Act say the fine must go toward restoration of the region that impacted by the spill.

“It is really disappointing that there is no movement still,” Representative Kathy Castor said.

Even though the bill has a bipartisan support in the Senate and the House, it has not passed still as an individual item since it was introduced last spring.

Chosen officials from Baldwin and Mobile counties met to start discussions on how the BP oil spill fine money to be spend. Both the counties expect money from BP for damages caused by the April 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The meeting was held at the 5 Rivers Delta Resource Center. The possible members of the AGCRC (Alabama Gulf Coast Recovery Council), a panel of 10 members to be formed under legislation, were present in the meeting.

According to organizers, the meeting was mainly to introduce the members of the panel to one another and to provide a general idea of the Restore Act, a legislation to direct the BP fine money to the Gulf Coast States affected by the April 2010 disaster.

The Senate has already approved the Restore Act. Now it is waiting for House approval.

Alabama – The city of Foley is to receive $875,000 soon as it reached a settlement with BP over the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, said Mike Thompson, the city administrator.

Following the executive conference to fix a deal, the council voted unanimously to accept money offered by BP as compensation for losses in sales taxes and other revenues and for potential losses in the future on account of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Mayor John Koniar said the settlement was reached after a negotiation between the city and the oil company officials last week.

He said the settlement amount is fair and is a little higher than what the city had expected.

A policymaker from Iberia Parish says he would like Louisiana voters to determine if settlements and judgments arising from 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill are to be dedicated to coastal restoration.

The proposed legal amendment by Representative Simone Champagne asks for snaring any money the state received from any suits relating to the BP oil spill disaster.

House Bill 812 demands any such money to be deposited in the CPRF (Coastal Protection and Restoration Fund).

“This amendment in constitution gives voters in Louisiana to decide how the money has to be spent and a chance to vote for the coast,” Champagne said.

The oil spill that released millions of gallons of crude into the Gulf in April 2010 has severely damaged coral communities as far as 11 kilometers (7 miles) away, a scientific study says.

Using a process known as two-dimensional gas chromatography, a group of U.S. scientists found that the oil around the damaged corals was released from the BP’s doomed Deepwater Horizon well.

The researchers discovered that the coral communities along the sea surface close to the blown-out well were covered with a type of brown substance and showed symptoms of tissue damage.

Sea bed coral group lies around 1200 meters below the ocean surface and so they not normally affected by spills from tankers, said Helen White, a chemistry professor with Haverford College, Pennsylvania.

“We do not expect deep-sea corals to be injured by a typical spill. But Deepwater Horizon spill’s sheer magnitude and its discharge at depth make it entirely different from an oil tanker spill,” White said.

According to researchers, it requires more study to find out if the coral can recover.