US federal government announced the details of the payments which oil corporation British Petroleum (BP) will have to make to cover damages caused by the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

US Attorney General said that the settlement reached with BP is the largest in American history. British Oil Company will have to pay 20 billion dollars in federal fines, of which 5.5 billion dollars as penalties imposed under the Clean Water Act.

Other 45 billion dollars will be paid by the company to states affected by the oil leak: Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Independent of payments the federal government has decided, BP has already paid 6 billion dollars for damages done to individuals and businesses affected by the accident.

In 2010, Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling platform exploded, causing the largest oil spill in US history, with 11 deaths as a result of the explosion. For three months, the BP specialists could not cap the well, more than 500 million liters of crude oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico.