"Judge’s Ruling on Gulf Oil Spill Lowers Ceiling on the Fine BP Is Facing", 15 Jan 2015

...Judge Carl J. Barbier of Federal District Court in New Orleans...[found]...that [BP] actually spilled four million barrels of oil into the gulf but, considering its collection efforts, BP should be held responsible for a net discharge of 3.19 million [barrels]...The estimated number of barrels is substantially less than the five million barrels experts for the federal government estimated (4.19 million after taking collection efforts into account), and substantially more than the 3.26 million the company said had been released (2.45 million after collection)...If the government’s estimate had been used, the penalty could have been as much as $18 billion. Under Judge Barbier’s ruling, the figure could be as high as about $13.7 billion...