Halliburton Co, North America’s top oilfield services provider, said it reached a $1.1bn settlement for a majority of claims related to its role in BP’s fatal oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.
The settlement, which includes legal fees, is subject to approval by the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, Halliburton said.
The amount, to be paid in three installments over the next two years, will be put into a trust until all appeals are resolved, the company said.
“We think this is a smart move by Halliburton,” Stewart Glickman, an equity analyst at S&P Capital IQ told Reuters. “While state claims by Louisiana and Alabama remain, we think this trims legal overhang.”
Halliburton provided the cement intended to seal the well in the event of a disaster. The company has since been embroiled in an ongoing series of legal actions related to the Deepwater Horizon disaster, which resulted in 11 deaths and discharged an estimated 4.9m barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
In a statement Stephen Herman and James Roy, the co-chairmen of the steering committee of plaintiffs’ lawyers, said: “Halliburton stepped up to the plate and agreed to provide a fair measure of compensation to people and businesses harmed in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon tragedy.”