Halliburton announces $1.1 billion Macondo claims agreement

Halliburton Co. reported a $1.1 billion agreement that it said would settle most of the class claims asserted by plaintiffs against the Houston oil field service company following the 2010 Macondo deepwater well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.

The proposed settlement, which is subject to the US District Court for Eastern Louisiana’s approval and an agreed-upon participation level by current claimants, would be paid into a trust until all appeals have been resolved in three installments over the next 2 years, Halliburton said on Sept. 2. It previously took a $1.3 billion contingency loss related to Macondo incident-related lawsuits in multiple districts.

Halliburton said the proposed settlement includes claims against it that BP PLC, the well’s operator, assigned to the settlement class in its April 2012 settlement; punitive claims against Halliburton by a class of plaintiffs alleging damages to property or associated with the commercial fishing industry arising from the incident; and affirmation that Halliburton has no liability for compensatory damages to settlement class members in BP’s April 2012 settlement.

Payments would be held in the trust pending final approval and sufficient acceptance of the proposed settlement, Halliburton said. These would include any appeals of BP’s 2012 settlement class agreement, the court’s earlier determination that the contractual indemnity provided by BP to Halliburton is valid and enforceable, and the court’s earlier dismissal of economic damage claims against Halliburton.

The company said it would withdraw the proposed settlement if not enough claimants agreed to accept it.

Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].