"The U.S. Supreme Court rejected appeals from BP Plc and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and left intact a ruling that opens the companies to potentially billions of dollars in fines for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

In declining to hear the appeal, the high court let stand a ruling by U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans that BP and Anadarko were automatically liable as co-owners of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. Supreme Court intervention might have delayed Barbier’s pending ruling on a U.S. request for as much as $13.7 billion in civil fines from BP and more than $1 billion from Anadarko. His decision may come at any time.

'We’re pleased with the decision,' Wyn Hornbuckle, a Justice Department spokesman, said in an e-mail."

Greg Stohr reports for Bloomberg June 29, 2015. [2]