By msnbc.com staff and news services
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NEW ORLEANS -- A federal judge said Friday night that BP and a committee representing plaintiffs suing over the 2010 Gulf oil spill had reached an agreement, The Associated Press reported on its website.
The AP said Judge Carl Barbier?said as a result of?the agreement, whichi will be filed with the court for approval, the trial?scheduled to begin Monday has been postponed for a second time.
No new date was immediately set.
The settlement will likely result in a realignment of the parties in this litigation and require substantial changes to the current trial plan, Barbier said. He didn't elaborate, and there was no mention in his order of anything about the status of BP's talks with the federal government and other parties.
The Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana in April 2010, killing 11 workers and spewing more than 200 million gallons of oil from an undersea well owned by BP. The spill soiling sensitive tidal estuaries and beaches, killing wildlife and shutting vast areas of the Gulf to commercial fishing.
For BP, the settlement represents only a fraction of its overall liability.
The company reported profits of $40 billion, $7.7 billion alone in the last quarter. It recently raised its dividend to shareholders by 14 percent. BP recently said it has 5 deep water rigs operating in the Gulf of Mexico and expects to be operating an additional three by the end of 2012.
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