Gulf of Mexico BP reached an $18.7bn settlement with the US government, the states of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, as well as 400 local authorities. To date BP's cost for the clean-up, environmental and economic damages and penalties has reached $54bn. According to the National Response Center, the oil industry has thousands of minor accidents in the Gulf of Mexico every year. On May 12, 2016, a release of oil from subsea infrastructure on Shell's "Brutus" oil rig released 2,100 barrels of oil. This leak created a visible 2 mile by 13 mile oil slick in the sea about 97 miles
Gulf of Mexico basin on top, by siliciclastic, eolian, playa and other sediments characteristic of arid terrestrial environments closer to shore, implying that at certain times during deposition, sediments accumulated almost up to sea level. The salt structures, which include anticlines, pillows, plugs and walls, in addition to extensive sheets, were created long after deposition by the rapid overlying sedimentation. Nearer the depocenter, which for the Gulf of Mexico basin was towards the spreading center, terrestrial sediments grade into marine shales and limestones. Post salt deposition, the strata recorded millions of years of marine flooding sediments, carbonates from coral reefs, thick sandstones, and eventual