Boston, MA 09/05/2014 (wallstreetpr) – According to reports, Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) has decided to settle most of the claims that are running against it in U.S. District Court in New Orleans. The company was allegedly found guilty in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico; therefore, quite a few claims were put against it. HAL will be paying as much as $1.1 billion to settle all the claims saying that it could certainly save billions in future claims.
Road ahead:
It announced settlement on September 2, 2014, which has not yet been approved by federal court. Unless court accepts the settlement, it won’t be exercised. The entire settlement amount of $1.1 billion will be charged from $1.3 billion fund, which was set aside by Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) in order to meet all the costs related to spill. The amount will be held in an escrow account until all the appeals are exhausted. Once the settlement deal is finalized, HAL will pay the amount in three installments.
What was the matter:
On April 20, 2011, 11 workers were dead in the Macondo oil field, after it blew up completely. The incident took place when The Deepwater Horizon oil rig off the Louisiana coast was handling drilling work there. As per the information revealed by U.S. government, approximately 4.9 million barrels of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico due to this incident. It was called as the worst oil spill incident in the history of that local area.
Parties involved in this case:
Three parties are directly involved in this case. Other than Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL), BP plc (ADR) (NYSE:BP) of Britain was also a contender that owned the rights of Macondo oil field. It has paid around $28 billion so far as penalty or charges. The third party in this case is Transocean LTD (NYSE:RIG) which is a rig-contractor. As per the news, it will pay around $1.4 billion to settle various claims levied against it.
