NEW YORK (Reuters) - BP PLC has reached a $7.8 billion agreement with plaintiffs suing over the massive 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, according to a court order on Friday, but the company still faces claims by the U.S. government and drilling partners.
As engineers bore deeper into the seafloor toward the source of the oil still spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, BP PLC is growing more confident that the relief well it expects to complete in August will succeed where all previous efforts to contain or kill the gusher have failed.
BP on Wednesday launched its latest bid to plug the gushing well in the Gulf of Mexico by force-feeding it heavy drilling mud, a maneuver known as a "top kill" that has never before been tried 5,000 feet underwater.
