BP to pay $4.5 billion, plead guilty to criminal charges in Gulf of Mexico oil spill Updated at 1:04 p.m. ET: BP will pay approximately $4.5 billion and plead guilty to criminal charges as part of a settlement with the U.S. government over the deadly Deepwater Horizon rig explosion and massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, the London-based oil giant said Thursday. The settlement total, to be paid out over five years, includes $1.25 billion in criminal fines -- the largest such penalty ever. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and other federal officials were expected to comment on the wide-ranging settlement later Thursday at a news conference in New Orleans. BP said it would plead guilty to 11 felony counts of misconduct or neglect relating to the death of 11 workers, one misdemeanor count under the Clean Water Act, one misdemeanor count under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and one felony count of obstruction of Congress. The agreement, subject to court approval, resolves all federal criminal charges and all claims by the Securities and Exchange Commission against the company stemming from the explosion and leak, the largest accidental marine oil spill in history. "All of us at BP deeply regret the tragic loss of life caused by the Deepwater Horizon accident as well as the impact of the spill on the Gulf coast region," Bob Dudley, BP's group chief executive, said in a statement announcing the settlement. From the outset, we stepped up by responding to the spill, paying legitimate claims and funding restoration efforts in the Gulf. We apologize for our role in the accident, and as today's resolution with the U.S. government further reflects, we have accepted responsibility for our actions. "We believe this resolution is in the best interest of BP and its shareholders," added Carl-Henric Svanberg, BP's chairman. It removes two significant legal risks and allows us to vigorously defend the company against the remaining civil claims. The Deepwater Horizon rig, 50 miles off the Louisiana coast, sank after the April 20, 2010, explosion. The well on the sea floor spewed an estimated 206 million gallons of crude oil, soiling sensitive tidal estuaries and beaches, killing wildlife and shutting vast areas of the Gulf to commercial fishing. The spill exposed lax government oversight and led to a temporary ban on deepwater drilling while officials and the oil industry studied the risks, worked to make it safer and developed better disaster plans. Thirteen of the 14 criminal charges to which BP plans to plead guilty pertain to the accident itself and stem from the negligent misinterpretation of a negative pressure test conducted on board the Deepwater Horizon, BP said. The company said it acknowledged this misinterpretation more than two years ago when it released its internal investigation report. The remaining criminal count of obstruction pertains to allegations that company officials lied to Congress about how much oil was pouring out of the ruptured well during the spill response. As part of its resolution of criminal claims with the U.S. government, BP will pay $4 billion in installments over five years. BP has also agreed to five years" probation. That includes about $1.25 billion in criminal fines, nearly $2.4 billion to the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation and $350 million to the National Academy of Sciences. BP said it will also pay the SEC $525 million over three years to settle all securities claims. The $1.25 criminal penalty is the largest in U.S. history, eclipsing the nearly $1.2 billion paid by Pfizer Inc. for marketing fraud related to its Bextra pain medicine in 2009, according to Bloomberg and The Associated Press. BP has also agreed to take additional steps to boost safety of drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico, including third-party auditing and verification, training and well control equipment and processes such as blowout preventers and cementing. Under U.S. law, companies convicted of certain criminal acts can be debarred from contracting with the federal government. BP says it has not been told of any intent by government agencies to suspend or debar the company in connection with the plea agreement. The deal negotiated with the Justice Department is separate from a March settlement in which BP agreed to pay affected parties $7.8 billion for damages. The cost of BP's spill far surpassed the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989. Exxon ultimately settled with the U.S. government for $1 billion, which would be about $1.8 billion today. The government and plaintiffs' attorneys also sued Transocean Ltd., the rig's owner, and cement contractor Halliburton, but a string of pretrial rulings by a federal judge undermined BP's legal strategy to pin blame on them. At the time of the explosion, the Deepwater Horizon was drilling into BP's Macondo well. The rig sank two days later. After several attempts failed, engineers finally managed to cap the well on July 15, 2010, halting the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico after more than 85 days.