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A US court approves the biggest criminal fine in US history given to British oil giant BP as part of a settlement related to the fatal 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. In November, BP said it would pay $4bn (£2.5bn) to the US Department of Justice and agreed to plea guilty to 14 criminal charges. The sum included a $1.26bn fine.

BP is being temporarily suspended from new contracts with the U.S. government, the Environmental Protection Agency says.

BP will pay approximately $4.5 billion and plead guilty to criminal charges as part of a settlement with the U.S. government over the deadly Deepwater Horizon rig explosion and massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, the London-based oil giant announced Thursday.

Oil company BP said Monday it is selling some deep-water assets in the Gulf Mexico to Plains Exploration & Production Co. for $5.55 billion, a big step in the BP's drive to cover the cost of its oil well blowout in the Gulf two years ago and concentrate investment elsewhere.

A 50,000-barrel batch of contaminated fuel from a BP refinery in Northwest Indiana has fouled countless cars in as many as four states since last week.

"... over two decades, more than 45 people have died, BP has faced three criminal convictions ..."

BP and a committee representing plaintiffs suing over the 2010 Gulf oil spill have reached an estimated $7.8 billion agreement to settle the lawsuit, company officials said late Friday.

A partial settlement of claims made against BP for the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is very close, sources tell the BBC.

BP Plc has delayed by one week the start of a massive trial to decide who should pay for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, to allow more time to cut a deal with tens of thousands of businesses and individuals affected by the disaster.

On the cusp of trial over the catastrophic 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, phalanxes of lawyers, executives and public officials have spent the waning days in settlement talks. Holed up in small groups inside law offices, war rooms and hotel suites in New Orleans and Washington, they are trying to put a number on what BP and its partners in the doomed Macondo well project should pay to make up for the worst offshore spill in U.S. history.