British oil giant BP has agreed to pay the U.S. government $4.5 billion in installments over a period of five years for the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the oil giant announced in a press release.
The cost of BP's spill far surpassed the Exxon Valdez spill off Alaska in 1989. Exxon ultimately settled with the U.S. government for $1 billion, which would be about $1.8 billion today.
