(Westlaw Business) What if a $20 billion claim were the least of a defendant’s worries? As expected, the U.S. government has filed suit against BP and eight other defendants for their liability for last spring’s tragic Macondo blowout that claimed 11 lives and caused perhaps incalculable environmental and commercial damage.

Styled United States v. BP Exploration & Production, Inc., et al.,1 the government filed the case in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, the multi-district litigation (MDL) forum selected to hear all tort claims resulting from the blowout. (See Westlaw Business Currents Energy Industry: Courtroom Drama, No Mere Legal Arcana.) In addition to BP, the suit names as defendants: Anadarko Exploration & Production LP and Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (collectively “Anadarko”); MOEX Offshore 2007 LLC (MOEX); Triton Asset Leasing GMBH (Triton); Transocean Holdings LLC, Transocean Offshore Deepwater Drilling, Inc., and Transocean Deepwater, Inc. (collectively “Transocean”); and QBE Underwriting Ltd., Lloyd’s Syndicate 1036 (Lloyd’s).

Although reserving its right to amend the complaint, perhaps the most remarkable element of the government’s pleading is its straightforwardness: The complaint seeks civil penalties under §311b of the Clean Water Act (CWA), and a declaratory judgment that all defendants are liable under the Oil Pollution Act (OPA).

In a nutshell, the government has claimed that each defendant is “subject to a judicially assessed civil penalty of up to $1,100 per barrel of oil that has been discharged or up to $4,300 per barrel of oil that has been discharged, to the extent that the discharge of oil was the result of gross negligence or willful misconduct by such Defendant.” Based on an estimated five million barrels of oil discharged, the civil fines would be roughly $5.5 to $21.5 billion.

via Litigation Risk: BP and Partners Maimed as Gross Negligence Claimed?.