BP contract ban lifted by US government

The disaster, caused by the explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil platform, killed 11 workers, ruined local businesses, and caused the biggest marine disaster in US history. The EPA argued that it had added insult to injury by displaying an alleged “lack of business integrity” in its handling of the matter.

The EPA’s ban only applied to new contracts, not those that had already been signed, but it still dealt a severe blow to BP’s business.

Prior to the ban, in the year to October 2012, the oil giant saw its net business with the US government swell by $2.51bn, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It finished the year to October 2013 with a net loss of $654m in federal business.

The removal of the ban follows a back and forth legal row between BP and the EPA.

BP always assumed the ban would be temporary, and sued the EPA last year when it was not being lifted.

However, the US Department of Justice upheld the EPA’s decision, saying BP’s “latest round of plans and promises is insufficient to demonstrate that [it] is a responsible federal contractor”.

The two organisations have finally come to a truce after negotiating special conditions for BP to operate under. They will last five years.

“This is a fair agreement that requires BP to improve its practices inorder to meet the terms we’ve outlined together,” said an EPA spokesman. “Many months of discussions and assessments have led up to this point, and I’m confident we’ve secured strong provisions to protect the integrity of federal procurement programmes.”

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