Cameron International to pay BP $250 mn to settle Gulf of Mexico oil spill

British oil giant BP today said that it has agreed to accept $250 million from Cameron International, to settle all claims related the Gulf of Mexico disaster that caused the worst oil spill in the US history.

Under the out-of-court-settlement, BP will fully indemnify Cameron against all damage claims, but not for fines or from criminal or civil penalties imposed by the US under its Clean Water Act, the companies said in separate statements.

BP will place the $250 million into the $20-billion fund set up last year to compensate victims of the disaster. The London-based company has already paid about $7.5 billion to individuals, businesses, government entities and natural resource damages.

BP and Cameron will withdraw all claims against each other in the multi-district litigation pending in New Orleans.

''Today's settlement allows BP and Cameron to put our legal issues behind us and move forward to improve safety in the drilling industry,'' said Bob Dudley, BP group chief executive. ''Cameron is the fourth company to settle with BP and contribute to economic and environmental restoration efforts in the Gulf. Unfortunately, other companies persist in refusing to accept responsibility for their roles in the accident and for contributing to restoration efforts.''

BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded on 20 April 2010 killing 11 workers and the oil major was able to cap the leaking oil well only three months later on 16 July, but not before the well had spewed between 90.4 and 178.6 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico (See: BP caught in the sludge of potentially worst oil disaster in US history).