“‘We’ve been abandoned’: a decade later, Deepwater Horizon still haunts Mexico”, 19^th April 2020

…[F]ish stocks began to decline in 2011 across the Gulf – the year after BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded 200 miles north of Mexican territory. The offshore rig sank and released almost 5m barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico over 87 days…

Amid public and political outrage in the US, BP took full responsibility for the worst oil spill of the 20th century, which killed 11 crew members and injured 17 others. The company has paid out $69bn, including more than $10bn to affected fishermen and businesses.

But BP denied the oil reached Mexico, claiming the ocean current propelled the huge spill in the opposite direction. However, fishermen and Mexican scientists knew this wasn’t true…

[A] research working group created by BP conducted more than 240 studies, which cost $1.3bn in less than five years after the spill. BP also set up a $500m, 10-year program to monitor US waters just over a month after the spill and aid to restore the ecosystem.

BP has not directly funded any studies or working groups in Mexico, but the battle for justice goes on.

In Mexico, a class-action lawsuit was launched against four BP subsidiaries – two headquartered in Texas, two in Mexico – in December 2015, by an NGO working with pro bono lawyers specialising in environmental disasters.

It took two years and several court orders to track down the correct addresses of the Mexican subsidiaries in order to kickstart proceedings. Finally, in September 2019, the lawsuit was authorised to proceed despite BP’s efforts to have it dismissed, but is currently on hold since BP appealed…