The charges would mark the first criminal charges stemming from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon accident, which killed 11 people, injured 17 and caused almost 5 million barrels of crude oil to spill.
A conviction would call for up to five years in prison in addition to a fine, the paper said.
It’s not clear specifically which employees federal prosecutors are eyeing, but they are reportedly focused on several Houston engineers and at least one of their supervisors. Prosecutors may still elect not to charge these employees criminally, the Journal reported. U.S. prosecutors are reportedly considering filing criminal charges against employees,
The U.K. energy giant’s role in the worst offshore oil spill in American history.
According to The Wall Street Journal, federal officials may disclose felony charges early next year against employees who may have provided false information to regulators about the risks tied to the Gulf of Mexico well while drilling was ongoing.
At the same time, legal experts told the paper BP is likely to face broader criminal charges, including for allegedly violating the Clean Water Act.
U.S.-listed shares of BP slipped 0.05% to $42.34 ahead of the open, while the company’s London-listed stock gained 0.21%., which has since become ExxonMobil (XOM: 86.00, +1.24, +1.46%), faced a slew of criminal charges over the infamous 1989 Exxon Valdez Alaskan oil spill, which involved 11 million barrels of oil.
The threat of charges to pressure people to cooperate in investigations. Legal experts say BP itself is expected to face broader criminal charges, including violations of the federal Clean Water Act; the company already is appealing what could amount to $36.6 million in administrative fines levied by U.S. regulators for safety violations. The size of the fines hasn't been finalized. The company has said it believed the accident was caused by a combination of events that involved multiple parties, not just BP.
A federal task force based in New Orleans has spent the past 18 months investigating the April 2010 accident. Prosecutors have reviewed thousands of documents and conducted dozens of interviews, including bringing some individuals before a grand jury, according to people close to the investigation.
Criminal charges have been brought in previous oil spills, most notably the 1989 Exxon Valdez accident, in which an Exxon oil tanker hit a reef off the Alaskan coast and spilled 11 million gallons of crude. Exxon, now Exxon Mobil Corp., faced five criminal charges, including two felonies for placing an incompetent crew on the ship and three misdemeanour charges of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Clean Water Act.
Alternative calculations, based on an assumption that the sea water rather than oil was drained from the damaged tanks, estimate the total to have been 25 to 32 million US gallons.
The company later reached a settlement under which it pleaded guilty to four misdemeanors and paid $100 million in restitution. The company also paid $900 million to Alaska and the federal government for damaging natural resources.
The company later reached a settlement under which it pleaded guilty to four misdemeanors and paid $100 million in restitution. The company also paid $900 million to Alaska and the federal government for damaging natural resources.
The only individual charged in the Valdez case was Captain Joseph Hazelwood, who was accused of three felonies-criminal mischief, operating the ship while intoxicated and reckless endangerment-and a misdemeanour charge of negligently discharging oil.
A jury found him guilty only of the misdemeanour, and he was sentenced to 1,000 hours of community service and $50,000 in restitution.
The ship was carrying approximately 55 million US gallons (210,000 m3) of oil, of which about 11 to 32 million US gallons (42,000 to 120,000 m3) were spilled into the Prince William Sound. A figure of 11 million US gallons (42,000 m3) was a commonly accepted estimate of the spill's volume and has been used by the State of Alaska's Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and environmental groups such as Greenpeace and the Sierra Club Some groups, such as Defenders of Wildlife, dispute the official estimates, maintaining that the volume of the spill has been underreported.
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