BP has agreed to pay $373 million (€260 million) to settle US charges stemming from a Texas refinery explosion, an Alaska oil spill and allegations it manipulated the propane market.
BP will pay $303 million for attempting to corner the US propane market in 2004, the largest fine ever handed down by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
In addition, it will pay a $50 million criminal fine for the massive 2005 explosion at its Texas City refinery that killed 15 people and injured more than 170. It was the deadliest US industrial accident in more than a decade.
BP agreed to plead guilty to one violation of the Federal Clean Air act and will face the biggest penalty ever levied under the act for the refinery explosion, the US Justice Department said.
The company has already given $1.6 billion to victims of the explosion and has resolved over 1,600 personal injury claims. Civil lawsuits could push the payment higher.
BP will also pay $20 million in criminal fines and restitution to Alaska to resolve criminal liability for a pipeline spill at its Prudhoe Bay oilfield in Alaska in 2006.