US Government estimates that over 4 million barrels of oil leaked into the Gulf of Mexico

Transocean, one of the companies associated with BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil well disaster, has recovered $735m (£471m) in legal settlements and insurance related to the incident.

The fees, booked in the second quarter of the year, offset a charge of $653m.

That was booked for scrapping or mothballing a group of drillships for which there are currently no demand.

Oil businesses are shrinking as a 50% fall in the price of oil over the past year make investments less worthwhile.

Transocean said second-quarter operating revenues were $1.78bn, down from $2.bn a year ago,

Net income was $348m from $597m.

Transocean owned and partly manned the Deepwater Horizon rig which was being used to extract oil from a BP-owned oil field.

The 2010 explosion on the rig killed 11 people and caused widespread environmental damage.

BP, which operated the well, was ruled “grossly negligent” by a US court.

Potential fines for BP are around $18bn (£11.1bn) and it has set aside more than $42bn to cover the total cost of the accident.

Source: news.ftcpublications.com

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