BP Tallies Total Deepwater Horizon Costs: $61.6 Billion
"Over the past few months, we've made significant progress resolving outstanding Deepwater Horizon claims and today we can estimate all the material liabilities remaining from the incident. Importantly, we have a clear plan for managing these costs and it provides our investors with certainty going forward," said Brian Gilvary, BP's chief financial officer.
BP on July 14 announced it has estimated all remaining material liabilities from the Deepwater Horizon disaster, after making "significant progress in resolving outstanding claims" arising from the 2010 destruction of the drilling rig and subsequent oil spill. So the company can now reliably estimate all of its remaining material liabilities from it, and as a result expects to take an after-tax, non-operating charge of around $2.5 billion in its second quarter 2016 results.
The grand total pre-tax charge related to the Deepwater Horizon incident is $61.6 billion -- $44.0 billion after tax.
"BP believes that any further outstanding Deepwater Horizon-related claims not covered by this additional charge will not have a material impact on the Group’s financial performance. It will deal with remaining claims in the ordinary course of business," the company's news release stated.
"Over the past few months, we've made significant progress resolving outstanding Deepwater Horizon claims and today we can estimate all the material liabilities remaining from the incident. Importantly, we have a clear plan for managing these costs and it provides our investors with certainty going forward," said Brian Gilvary, BP's chief financial officer.
The announcement said BP also made significant progress in resolving economic loss and property damage claims from individuals and businesses that either opted out of the PSC settlement and/or were excluded from that settlement. "In February 2016, the US federal district court estimated that there were more than 85,000 valid opt-out and excluded economic loss plaintiffs. The vast majority of these claims have since been settled or dismissed as an order of the court today confirms. An estimate of the cost of the remaining claims, expected to be paid by the end of 2016, is also included in this charge," it said.