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
Deepwater Horizon oil spill a 193-page report on its web site. The report places some of the blame for the accident on BP but also on Halliburton and Transocean. The report found that on 20 April 2010, managers misread pressure data and gave their approval for rig workers to replace drilling fluid in the well with seawater, which was not heavy enough to prevent gas that had been leaking into the well from firing up the pipe to the rig, causing the explosion. The conclusion was that BP was partly to blame, as was Transocean, which owned the rig. Responding to the report, Transocean