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BP is facing a possible civil penalty of up to $13.7bn for its 2010 spill in the Gulf of Mexico as a result of a court ruling on Thursday, after a US judge split the difference between competing claims about how much oil had escaped into the ocean.
根据一家法院在周四做出的裁决，英国石油(BP)可能会因2010年墨西哥湾溢油事故面临最高137亿美元的民事处罚。在这一裁决中，对于有多少原油泄露到海洋中的问题，一位美国法官在相互矛盾的说法之间采取了折中的方案。
The highest possible penalty is about $4bn less than the maximum previously sought by the US government, but still almost four times as much as the amount set aside by the company.
这一最高的可能罚金比美国政府此前试图施加的最大数目少了大约40亿美元，不过仍是该公司拨备资金的将近4倍。
Judge Carl Barbier at the US District Court in New Orleans ruled on Thursday that BP’s Macondo well had leaked 3.19m barrels of oil into the waters of the gulf: a figure that was not far from the midpoint of the range set by the competing estimates from BP and the US government.
美国新奥尔良地方法院法官卡尔•巴尔比耶(Carl Barbier)周四裁定，英国石油公司Macondo油井向墨西哥湾海域泄露了319万桶原油。与英国石油公司和美国政府间相互抵触的估计数字相比，这一数字差不多正好在两者中间。
BP had argued that 2.45m barrels went into the water, while the US government contended it was 4.19m. Both sides produced expert witnesses and made technical arguments in court to support their estimates.
英国石油公司曾声称泄露的原油数目为245万桶，而美国政府则认为是419万桶。双方都提供了专家证人，并在法庭上为支持他们的估计数字开展了技术方面的辩护。
In Judge Barbier’s first decision from the trial, which he handed down last September, BP was found to have acted with gross negligence and wilful misconduct in the actions that caused the spill.
巴尔比耶法官发自该法庭的第一份裁决书是在2014年9月发出的。根据该裁决书，英国石油公司被认定在导致溢油事故的种种行为中存在重大过失及故意失当行为。
Under the Clean Water Act, that means it faces a maximum civil penalty of $4,300 per barrel spilled, implying a potential total charge of up to $13.7bn.
根据《清洁水法》(Clean Water Act)，这一裁决意味着该公司将按照其溢油量，面临最大每桶4300美元的民事处罚。也就是说，总的罚金可能高达137亿美元。
The precise total will be set by the judge following a final “penalty phase” of the trial, which begins in New Orleans next Tuesday.
总的准确数额将由法官在此次审判的最终“判罚阶段”之后给出，这一阶段将于下周二在新奥尔良启动。
The US government will argue that the penalty should be set at or close to that maximum, while BP will contend that factors that are important under the law, including the efforts it made to clean up the oil and the recovery of the gulf region since the spill, mean that the payment should be much lower.
在这一裁决给出之后，美国政府将会辩称，罚金应该设置在137亿美元的最大值，或者接近这一数值。而英国石油公司则会以多种因素开展抗辩，其中包括该公司在清理油污方面的努力、以及溢油事故后墨西哥湾地区的恢复情况。根据相关法律，这些因素在决定罚金数额方面十分重要，它们会使罚金数额大大降低。
It has provided $3.5bn for the Clean water Act penalty in its accounts.
目前，英国石油公司为《清洁水法》处罚拨备的资金为35亿美元。
