A US District Court judge has ordered Anadarko Petroleum to pay $159.5m for its role in the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster of 2010.
The platform explosion in the Gulf of Mexico on 20 April, 2010 took 11 lives and the ensuing oil flow from the untapped well lasted almost three months, causing the worst ever offshore US oil spill.
While BP, as the major player in that operation, has been penalized much more severely, Woodlands, Texas-based Anadarko must take a share of the responsibility as a minority (25%) partner, even though it was not directly to blame for the calamity, said federal judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans District Court.
