Deepwater Horizon oil spill and payments to a trust fund had cost the company $42.2 billion. In September 2014, a U.S. District Court judge ruled that BP was primarily responsible for the oil spill because of its gross negligence and reckless conduct. In July 2015, BP agreed to pay $18.7 billion in fines, the largest corporate settlement in U.S. history. How the misuse of categorical exclusion for National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) compliance relates to this spill is described in Regulatory Capture. The "Deepwater Horizon" was a 10-year-old semi-submersible, mobile, floating, dynamically positioned drilling rig that could operate in waters up to deep. Built
Volume and extent of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill silts and sands onshore. On 26 May 2011, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality extended the state of emergency related to the spill. In April 2012, oil was found dotting of Louisiana's coast. As of December 2012, of coastline remain subject to evaluation and/or cleanup operations. On 15 May 2010, researchers from the National Institute for Undersea Science and Technology, aboard the research vessel "RV Pelican", identified oil plumes in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, including one as large as long, wide and thick in spots. The shallowest oil plume the group detected was at about ,