Anadarko Petroleum Corp. has comes to a settlement agreement worth $5.1 billion with the U.S. Justice Department over cleanups as a result of Kerr-McGee's Tronox Inc.
Tronox was owned by Kerr-McGee, but it went bankrupt, but not before leaving dozens of sites in need of a cleanup. Anadarko purchased Kerr-McGee in 2006, but agreed to pay in order to calm the stock, which has improved since the announcement was first made, reports The Washington Post.
Anadarko chairman and CEO Al Walker said in a statement, "This settlement agreement with the Litigation Trust and the U.S. Government eliminates the uncertainty this dispute has created, and the proceeds will fund the remediation and cleanup of the legacy environmental liabilities and tort claims."
According to Bloomberg, U.S. Deputy Attorney General James Cole said that the settlement was needed so that those who caused the mess paid the price and not everyone else.
The $5.1 billion settlement is just a small fraction of what the Justice Department initially sought, which was $25 billion. There are about 2,772 sites that will require cleanup, with 8,100 people who have filed claims over the messes left behind.
Before this settlement, the most had been $4.5 billion that BP agreed to pay after the Deepwater Horizon spill.