ATP agrees to $41.85m settlement over discharging of oil into the Gulf of Mexico

Houston, Texas-based ATP Oil and Gas, has agreed to pay $41.85m to settle charges that it discharged oil in the Gulf of Mexico and tried to hide the discharge using an unauthorized chemical dispersant, according to Reuters.

The US Department of Justice revealed the settlement offer on Thursday.

The alleged violations were revealed by an inspection of ATP’s platform ATP Innovator by the US Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) in March 2012.

At the time the ATP Innovator was operating in the Mississippi Canyon area of the Gulf, offshore southeastern Louisiana.

Charges were filed against ATP in February 2013.

ATP is currently going through bankruptcy proceedings and is no longer operating.