Michael Kunzelman Posts

A judge rebuffed efforts by British Petroleum to dole out compensation for losses caused by the Gulf oil spill on a case-by-case basis - essentially the opposite of what was settled on a year ago. Case-by-case adjudication would have slowed the process down to a virtual standstill.

A federal judge was set to begin hearing three weeks of testimony Monday about how much oil made it into the ocean during the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Experts for BP and the federal government will provide U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier with very different estimates when the second phase of a trial resumes for litigation spawned by the spill.

A $1.4 billion settlement between the Justice Department and Deepwater Horizon rig owner Transocean Ltd. will pump hundreds of millions of dollars into projects designed to help the Gulf Coast recover from the nation's largest offshore oil spill. Transocean said it believes the settlement is in the best interest of its shareholders and employees and eliminates "much of the uncertainty associated with the accident."