BP faces billions in fines as spill trial nears

[jaxx]

BP faces billions in fines as spill trial nears
Feb 25, 9:22 AM (ET)
By CAIN BURDEAU

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - On the cusp of trial over the catastrophic 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, phalanxes of lawyers, executives and public officials have spent the waning days in settlement talks. Holed up in small groups inside law offices, war rooms and hotel suites in New Orleans and Washington, they are trying to put a number on what BP and its partners in the doomed Macondo well project should pay to make up for the worst offshore spill in U.S. history.

<..> The federal government, Gulf states, plaintiffs' attorneys, BP PLC, rig owner Transocean Ltd. (RIG) and cementer Halliburton Energy Services Inc. have been in simultaneous and separate negotiations in New Orleans, according to a person with direct knowledge of the talks and others who had been briefed on them.

Trial is set for Monday, and by Friday, no deal had been reached, several people familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The biggest stumbling block appeared to be the sheer size and sprawling uncertainty over the unprecedented dollar amounts at stake.

Financial analysts estimate BP's potential settlement payout at $15 billion to roughly $30 billion. The company itself estimated it would cost about $41 billion in the weeks after the explosion to account for all of its costs, including cleanup, compensating businesses, and paying fines and ecological damage.

http://apnews.excite.com/article/2012022...ET400.html

I hope this trial is televised. Will be interesting for sure.

[Brainwreck]

I will be happy to see BP held accountable in the biggest way possible. But I am certain there will be a huge backwash of price gouging at the pumps. BP will recoup its losses on the backs of every customer for sure. Thats the way most corporate paybacks work. I wish there was a way to just toss the big shots in jail and turn the company over to more responsible leaders while the profits over the next fifty years are given to a people-driven side organization dedicated to the reclamation of our oceans and lands and lost jobs, etc.

[MilesColtrane]

$16.5 billion going to the lawyers.

The people whose livelihood's were destroyed will get a check for $1,000 and a "good luck with all that" out of this.

[sandnsea]

I wish there were a process to force a trial, hearing, something so that the guilty are held publicly liable. I hate these back room deals, like the mortgage deal, where the rich never have to admit fault while the poor are maligned and out in the cold.