LONDON--British oil giant BP PLC (BP) could remain tangled in litigation over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill until 2015, the Telegraph reports Sunday.
Last week, BP reached an agreement with U.S. authorities to accept criminal responsibility for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster that killed 11 workers and to pay $4.5 billion in fines and restitution, the biggest penalty ever levied by the U.S. Justice Department.
However, the oil major still faces civil litigation for the pollution caused by the incident, which caused the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
BP stands accused of gross negligence in the Gulf of Mexico disaster and if found guilty could face fines of up to $20 billion under the Clean Water Act, about four times more than if the company is found simply to have been negligent.
The case is set to go before a federal judge in New Orleans in February.
"If something were to happen at the trial that read across to gross negligence we would certainly take that to appeal, which would probably take you out to 2014 or 2015," BP's chief financial officer Brian Gilvary told analysts, the Telegraph reports.
Website: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/9685683/BP-warns-that-4.5bn-deal-is-not-the-end-of-Gulf-of-Mexico-disaster.html
Write to Sarah Kent at sarah.kent@dowjones.com
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