BP announced a deal on Friday that provides Louisiana an accelerated, lump-sum US$350 million payment to resolve claims over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill and that also settles long-running coastal damage litigation by local parishes. BP agreed in 2015 to pay up to US$18.7 billion to the federal government and five states to resolve claims arising out of the oil spill. That money includes US$4.9 billion payable over 18 years to settle economic and other claims by the states. While Louisiana had been owed US$373 million over the next seven years, the state will now receive a single US$350 million payment. BP said remaining coastal zone lawsuits by Louisiana parishes will be resolved. It did not provide further details. “We have now disposed of claims and settled with all but one of the major defendants in these coastal cases,” Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, said in a statement distributed by BP. (Reporting by Ankita Bora in Bengaluru and Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Joyjeet Das)
