Fishermen to get final $1 billion payout from BP over spill

Disaster: Seafood workers were hit by the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

3 May 2016

BP has dropped attempts to avoid paying out $1 billion (£683 million) to seafood workers hit by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, even though the company suspected people and even a dog were among fake claimants.

The Deepwater Horizon catastrophe hit thousands of Gulf Coast shrimpers and oystermen in 2010 when four million barrels of oil spilt into the sea.

BP had already paid out around half of the $2.3 billion fund earmarked for seafood workers, but launched a fraud action last year against Texas lawyer Mikal Watts.

Watts, one of the lawyers on the spill’s legal steering committee, claimed to represent 40,000 Vietnamese boat captains and crew.

But BP and its lawyers claimed his client list is riddled with fake names and even a dog.

Watts goes on trial in July. Legal filings in New Orleans showed BP is dropping its fight against the seafood claimants and will pay up, although it is sticking with its fraud claims against Watts.

First-quarter results last week showed that the energy company has racked up a mammoth $56.4 billion in spill-related costs so far.

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