WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- Transocean Deepwater Inc. has agreed to pay more than $1 billion in fines and penalties for the BP oil spill, the U.S. Justice Department said Thursday.
Transocean owned the Deepwater Horizon rig, which exploded in April 2010, setting off a leak at the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico that took three months to cap. The company agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges, paying $400 million in fines, as well as another $1 billion in civil penalties for violations of the Clean Water Act, officials said.