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BP could pay out as much as £13.9 billion in additional civil fines after a US Judge ruled that the oil firm was "grossly negligent" in the run-up to the Gulf of Mexico disaster
The ruling, which is being contested by the company, was made under the Clean Water Act by Louisiana district judge Carl Barbier, who said that BP bore 67% of the blame for the Macondo well disaster which killed 11 workers in April 2010.
The company has put the current cost of the disaster, which includes compensation and criminal fines, at £25.3 billion. BP plans to appeal the decision in the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
It said: "BP believes that the finding that it was grossly negligent with respect to the accident and that its activities at the Macondo well amounted to wilful misconduct is not supported by the evidence at trial.
"The law is clear that proving gross negligence is a very high bar that was not met in this case. BP believes that an impartial view of the record does not support the erroneous conclusion reached by the District Court."
The level of the fines under the Clean Water Act are determined by the amount of oil spilt and whether the disaster was caused by simple negligence, gross negligence or wilful misconduct. The court will hold additional proceedings in January to consider the factors in determining a penalty.
Barbier said in his ruling that BP made "profit-driven decisions" during the drilling of the well that led to the deadly blowout.
He said: "These instances of negligence, taken together, evince an extreme deviation from the standard of care and a conscious disregard of known risks."
Millions of gallons of crude gushed into the Gulf in 2010 after the well blew and triggered an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, killing wildlife, staining beaches and polluting marshes.
BP ultimately sealed the well after several previous attempts had failed to stop it.
The oil giant pleaded guilty in January 2013 to manslaughter charges for the rig workers' deaths.
It also agreed to pay a record £3.2 billion in penalties as part of its deal with the Justice Department, but the plea agreement did not resolve the federal government's civil claims against the firm.