Almost a decade of legal tactical maneuvering passes: In a dispute over environmental damage to the U.S. government and the American oil company Anadarko Petroleum (3.75 billion euros) have to be compensated in the amount of $ 5.15 billion agreed. It is the highest amount that has ever existed in such a case, said the U.S. Department of Justice.
Specifically, it’s about the decontamination of thousands of locations as well as the compensation of thousands of plaintiffs. So alone receives a Navajo territory in which damages were caused by uranium mining, a billion dollars.
The reason for the dispute goes far back into the past. The energy and chemical company Kerr-McGee, now a subsidiary of Anadarko has contaminated, according to the allegations of the government since its founding in 1929 dozens of areas in 22 U.S. states. So rocket fuel had arrived in Lake Mead, from about Las Vegas involves more than 90 percent of its water. In the reserve of the Navajo Indians, the company had auftgetürmt radioactive and toxic uranium waste just under the open sky and dumped the carcinogenic wood preservative creosote in the east and south of the United States.
Anadarko Petroleum Record Compensation:”Long-lasting environmental damage”
” Kerr Mc -Gee left anywhere in the country significant , long-lasting environmental damage,” said Deputy Attorney General James Cole. Then the company tried to shift the huge bill for cleaning up the state.
Because Anadarko refused to pay compensation. The argument of the company: Kerr -McGee had transferred the claims in billions of dollars at its established in 2005, subsidiary Tronox – practical , three months before the takeover by Anadarko . Tronox but went bankrupt in 2009 after the company had to pay up to $ 126 million in compensation for environmental damage , according to ” New York Times ” .
Shortly after the bankruptcy drew Tronox against Anadarko in court : The removal of environmental damage – claims was not right . The U.S. Department of Justice , the Environmental Protection Agency , several states and the semi-autonomous Navajo Nation joined the lawsuit. Bankruptcy Judge Allan L. Gropper followed their point of view : the reorganization of the company was an attempt to save themselves from damages. Kerr -McGee had adopted the plan in the year 2000. The agreement must now be ratified by Gropper yet , and a federal court .
Anadarko Petroleum Record Compensation:Stocks advanced after unification by 15 percent to
It is still unclear how the sum is a penalty for Anadarko. No sooner had the news of the billion compensation in the world, put the company’s share price by nearly 15 percent. Anadarko CEO Al Walker welcomed the agreement in a statement: You “ends the uncertainty due to this dispute.”
Another reason for the price rise may be that the amount of compensation would be much higher can fail. The government had originally requested $ 25 billion for the cleanup of contaminated areas around 2700 and compensation for health effects such as cancer and respiratory distress to more than 8000 people . The end of 2013 had referred to a possible compensation sum from 5.2 to 14.2 billions of dollars a federal bankruptcy judge .
Deputy Attorney General Cole showed up at a press conference yet satisfied . The $ 5.15 billion , on which you ‘ve now agreed , are sufficient to resolve many environmental damage. “This means we can start immediately , instead of waiting many years. ”
It is not the only billion compensation for environmental damage that had to pay in the past few years Anadarko . The company has been involved with 25 percent of the Macondo oil field in the Gulf of Mexico, which became the ” Deepwater Horizon” disaster of April 2010 tragic celebrity. After the company initially rejected any responsibility for the cleanup work here , they transferred at the end of its stake in the Macondo well on BP – and put on top of four billion dollars. In return, BP agreed to refrain from any further claims against Anadarko associated with the oil spill .
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