Gulf States Reach $18.7B Settlement with BP over Oil Spill

BILOXI, Miss. (WCBI) — More than five years after the deadly Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a settlement has been reached with BP.

On Thursday, officials in Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Louisiana announced they reached an $18.7 billion settlement with the petroleum company after years of litigation.

This comes as a federal judge was preparing to rule on how much BP owed in federal Clean Water Act penalties, after more than 125 million gallons of oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico.

Mississippi and Alabama will receive more than $2 billion each from the settlement.

The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig on April 20, 2010 also killed 11 workers.