For every barrel of oil that flows from the damaged Macondo well, threatening contamination of beaches and marshes from Louisiana to Florida, BP could a face civil penalty from the Environmental Protection Agency of up to $1,100. If gross negligence were proved to have caused the spill, the maximum per-barrel figure would rise to $4,300.
This translates into a range of potential BP liabilities that stretches into the tens of billions of dollars, a scary level of uncertainty for any company to face.
If the 5,000-barrel-a-day official estimate is accurate, and there are many reasons to believe it is higher, and if BP’s attempt to cap the well this week is successful, the maximum penalty would be just $220 million, according to a commentary from analysts at Canaccord Genuity. That is relatively modest compared with the $760 million BP has spent on the cleanup so far.
