Anadarko Petroleum Corp. must pay a $159.5 million civil fine for its role in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil well whose blowout that caused the largest U.S. offshore oil spill, reports Reuters.

But in his ruling, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans said Anadarko was not at fault for the spill.

His order said “the company’s 25 percent ownership stake in the Macondo well made it part of the “polluting enterprise” responsible for the April 20, 2010, disaster, which began with an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, killing 11 workers.”

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A West Texas jury has awarded more than $43 million to a group of oil and gas investors after finding that their business partners had breached fiduciary duties by crediting themselves for financial contributions they never made and by excluding the investors from a lease acquisition project after it became apparent that the project would be tremendously successful.

Dallas attorneys Frank L. Branson, Eric T. Stahl and Debbie Branson of The Law Offices of Frank L. Branson represented one of the investor groups, consisting of Dallas-based Tiburon Land and Cattle LP and Trek Resources Inc. on behalf of the Three Finger/Black Shale Prospect Partnership. The Fisher County trial was heard in 32nd District Court in Roby.

“In Fisher County a deal is a deal,” said Branson in a report on the firm’s website. “It was very clear to the jurors that the defendants did not honor their word and took opportunities that did not belong to them, and that’s a very serious matter in West Texas.”

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