BP will be able to cease its payments into a $20bn compensation fund to help meet claims from last year’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill one year earlier than expected after striking an out-of-court settlement with Anadarko...Anadarko, one of BP’s minority partners in the Macondo well, will pay $4bn to settle claims between the two companies...BP will apply the single cash payment to the $20bn trust fund it set up last year. As a consequence, it will be able to finish paying into the fund by the end of 2012, a year earlier than expected...BP, which has always denied gross negligence, has set aside $41bn for total estimated costs associated with the accident. As a 25 per cent partner in the well, Anadarko would have been on the hook for 25 per cent of the costs of cleaning up the spill, compensating people affected and paying government fines. However, it would have been able to avoid these responsibilities if it proved BP had been grossly negligent. [also refers to MOEX (part of Mitsui), Transocean, Weatherford International]