[UPDATE] From KATC -

NEW ORLEANS (AP) – Two BP employees have been indicted on manslaughter charges in the 2010 Gulf oil spill disaster.
The federal indictment unsealed Thursday in New Orleans names BP well site leaders Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine. The indictment claims they acted negligently in their supervision of key safety tests performed on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig before an explosion killed 11 workers in April 2010. The indictment says Kaluza and Vidrine failed to phone engineers onshore to alert them of problems in the drilling operation.
The charges come on the same day that BP announced that it has agreed to pay $4.5 billion in a settlement with the U.S. government to plead guilty to felony counts related to the deaths of 11 workers and lying to Congress.

 

 

 

According to KPEL 965,

“a person the Associated Press says is familiar with the deal, BP says they are talking with U.S. agencies about settling criminal and other claims from the BP oil spill and explosion that happened two years ago.

Also being discussed today is the possibility that two BP employees could face manslaughter charges In a statement, BP said “no final agreement has yet been reached” and that any such deal would still be subject to court approvals.

The proposed settlement would not include civil claims under the Clean Water Act and other legislation, pending private civil claims and state claims for economic loss.

The Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, 2010.  Eleven workers died, and the explosion and fire set off a spill which continued for 87 days.

After the rig sank, there were several hundreds of millions of gallons of crude oil  that went into the water messing up the coastal areas in the south and wrecking fishing and tourism.”

 

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