7h 15min, apr 21, 2010 y - Anadarko ordered to pay $159.5 for Deepwater cleanup

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Anadarko ordered to pay $159.5 million fine for 2010 Gulf spill By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) - A federal judge ordered Anadarko Petroleum Corp to pay a $159.5 million civil fine reflecting its stake in the Gulf of Mexico well where a 2010 blowout caused the largest U.S. offshore oil spill.


Fire boat response crews battle the blazing remnants of the offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon, off Louisiana, in this April 21, 2010 file handout image. REUTERS/U.S. Coast Guard/Files/Handout
In a decision on Monday, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans said Anadarko was not at fault for the spill.

But he said the company’s 25 percent ownership stake in the Macondo well made it part of the “polluting enterprise” responsible for the April 20, 2010, disaster, which included the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and killed 11 workers.

The penalty equates to $50 per barrel of oil spilled, well below the maximum $1,100 per barrel, or $3.51 billion, penalty that Barbier could have imposed under the Clean Water Act.

A $159.5 million fine “strikes the appropriate balance between Anadarko’s lack of culpability and the extreme seriousness of this spill,” Barbier wrote in a 34-page decision.

In Tuesday afternoon trading, Anadarko shares were up 29 cents, or 0.5 percent, at $60.19.

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