Deepwater Horizon, the loss will cost more than 65 billion USD to British Petroleum (BP)

Magazine Issue:

The masters of Africa [3]

Magazine date:

Apr 2018

The British Petroleum company (BP), which is responsible of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in 2010, has estimated that the end of the compensation process for victims is near, according to a statement made in early 2018.

On this occasion, BP announced the additional payment in 2017 of 1.7 billion USD in compensation. This amount brings the total compensation paid during the last financial year to 3 billion USD.

For analysts, this additional cost is manageable. The current increase in oil prices has reduced the impact of indemnities on British Petroleum.

In 2012, that is two years after the incident, BP's compensations were estimated at 40 billion USD. Since then, an accumulation of charges against the company has progressively increased this amount. In 2016, the court reevaluates the claim incurred by BP at 65 billion USD. This is higher than the oil company's estimates that targeted a maximum of 61.6 billion USD.

Despite BP's declarations, the decision to grant victims an additional 1.7 billion in 2017 showed that this issue is far from over.