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 The Environmental Protection Agency and BP said they reached an
agreement ending the prohibition on bidding for federal contracts on
everything from fuel supply contracts to offshore leases after the
company committed to a set of safety, ethical and corporate
governance requirements.
Shares of BP traded in the United States rose about 1 percent to
$48.09 after the close of regular trading on the New York Stock
Exchange, a sign investors were hopeful the company could now try to
grow its U.S. offshore operations.
"It's time to let them out from the doghouse. Let's let them get
back to work," said Mike Breard, energy company analyst with Hodges
Capital Management in Dallas.
The government hit BP with the suspension in November 2012, citing
its "lack of business integrity," after the Deepwater Horizon oil
rig explosion killed 11 workers and gushed million of barrels of oil
into coastal waters, the worst offshore oil disaster in U.S.
history.
The ban only affected new contracts, not existing deals, and BP
filed last August to overturn it.
BP is one of the largest suppliers of fuel to the U.S. government,
including to the military, holding contracts worth more than $1.34
billion.
It is also a significant holder of leases in the U.S. Gulf of
Mexico, which has seen a surge in new crude production following the
Macondo oil well blowout.
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The last lease sale BP participated in was in June 2012, when they
acquired deepwater leases. They also bought 11 leases in the
December 2011 sale, the first post-Macondo auction.
Despite the settlement with the EPA, BP is still paying out millions
of dollars to settle damage claims from Gulf residents in a
contentious process that BP has said is being mismanaged by the
administrator, Louisiana lawyer Patrick Juneau.
BP has provisioned about $42 billion in charges related to the
spill.
The case was BP Exploration & Production Co et al v. McCarthy et al,
U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas, No. 13-02349.
(Reporting by Ayesha Rascoe in
Washington and Anna Driver and Kristen Hays in Houston; writing by
Terry Wade; editing by G Crosse)
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