BP Agrees to Pay $1 Billion for Start of Gulf Restoration

The agreement, the largest of its kind in an oil pollution case, does not absolve BP of legal liability for the explosion and spill that occurred April 20, 2010, or from the costs of any additional economic and environmental damages. The company faces fines and penalties of as much as $21 billion as a result of the disaster, the worst offshore drilling accident in United States history. The company could face additional penalties under a Justice Department criminal and civil investigation.

The advance payment, to be divided among the states and the two lead federal agencies overseeing restoration efforts, will be used to rebuild coastal marshes, replenish damaged beaches, conserve ocean habitat and restore barrier islands.

The $1 billion does not represent the governments’ estimate of the ultimate environmental cost of the explosion and spill, which poured nearly five million barrels of oil into the gulf over 87 days last year. Federal and state officials are conducting a review known as a natural resource damage assessment to measure the injury to the gulf habitat and devise a plan for restoring it, a process that generally takes years. Any restoration efforts financed by the $1 billion will count toward the company’s final liability, officials said.

As the leaseholder on the well and the party responsible for the spill, BP is responsible for the entire cost, although this week it filed suit against its drilling partners, Transocean, Halliburton and Cameron International, blaming them for the accident and seeking to recover tens of billions of dollars in compensation.

The agreement announced Thursday allows the complex work of environmental restoration to proceed more quickly and ends some of the squabbling over financing among states and the federal government.

The five states involved — Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas — will each get $100 million, as will the Department of the Interior and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The remaining $300 million will be used for projects proposed by the states and selected by the federal agencies.

“This agreement is a great first step toward restoring our natural resources destroyed by the BP oil spill,” Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana said in a statement. “We are eager to continue working with public, state and federal co-trustees and BP to quickly convert this down payment into projects to restore our damaged coast and replace our lost wildlife.”

Jane Lubchenco, the NOAA administrator, said the BP spill posed unusual challenges because it affected not only beaches, marshes and wildlife, but also the deep-sea environment and the ocean floor.

“We need to be thinking not only about the coastal portions of the gulf, but also the open water and deep sea habitat,” Dr. Lubchenco said in an interview. “They are all part of an integrated system and we believe there was damage to all of that system.”

She said that it was impossible today to estimate the total harm to the gulf but that the $1 billion pledged by BP would allow repair work to begin sooner and create cleanup jobs in the region.

Lamar McKay, president of BP America, said that the company was not legally obligated to make such payments until the full assessment was complete, but that financing restoration projects would speed healing in the gulf.

“BP believes early restoration will result in identified improvements to wildlife, habitat and related recreational uses in the gulf and our voluntary commitment to that process is the best way to get restoration projects moving as soon as possible,” Mr. McKay said.