A US federal judge has ruled that BP‘s willful misconduct and gross negligence led to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.
The ruling by US District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans means BP may face about $18bn in civil penalties under the Clean Water Act.
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The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded in April 2010, killing 11 men and injuring several others.
The well, which discharged millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, was capped in July and permanently sealed in September 2010.
Approximately, 3,000 cases, with more than 100,000 named claimants, have been filed in federal and state courts across the US since the initial explosions.
Barbier said in his ruling that BP made profit-driven decisions at the time of drilling, which led to the explosion.
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By GlobalDataBarbier said that BP should bear 67% of the blame for the oil spill, with drilling rig owner Transocean and the US-based cement firm Halliburton taking 30% and 3% responsibilities.
BP said in a statement that it strongly disagrees with the ruling and will appeal to a higher court.
The company said: "The law is clear that proving gross negligence is a very high bar that was not met in this case. BP believes that an impartial view of the record does not support the erroneous conclusion reached by the District Court."
The court is yet to give its ruling on the number of barrels spilled and no penalty is finalised at this time.
The district court will hold additional proceedings, which are expected to start in January 2015, to consider the application of statutory penalty factors in determining a per-barrel Clean Water Act penalty.
Under the US Clean Water Act, BP is liable to pay $1,100 per barrel of oil for simple negligence and $4,300 per barrel for gross negligence.
