Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, a BP partner, is being sued by investors for its role in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill at the Macondo well. Anadarko has over 100 hedge fund shareholders.

Reuters reports: “The investors claimed Anadarko wasn’t a passive partner in the Macondo well. It “expressly approved and funded a series of extremely risky decisions made in connection with drilling the well,” the investors said in court filings. Those decisions “contributed directly to the disaster,” they said. Once the spill occurred, Anadarko attempted to prop up its shares by continuing to downplay its role in the project, the investors said.”

The total discharge by the oil spill  is estimated at 4.9 million barrels. In November 2012, BP and the United States Department of Justice settled federal criminal charges with BP pleading guilty to 11 counts of manslaughter, two misdemeanors, and a felony count of lying to Congress. BP also agreed to four years of government monitoring of its safety practices and ethics, and the Environmental Protection Agency announced that BP would be temporarily banned from new contracts with the US government. BP and the Department of Justice agreed to a record-setting $4.525 billion in fines and other payments. (Wikipedia)

Anadarko has already agreed to pay BP $4 billion to settle its share of oil-spill claims by private parties, according to Reuters.