BP expected to pay record US criminal fine over Gulf spill The blast killed 11 workers and fouled the shorelines of four Gulf Coast states in the worst offshore spill in US history. BP said the talks covered "proposed resolutions of all US federal government criminal and SEC claims against BP in connection with the Deepwater Horizon incident," but were not expected to cover federal civil claims, including those relating to the Clean Water Act, private civil claims or state economic loss claims. Shares in the oil group were slightly up in early afternoon trading, after being down in the morning. The company has been negotiations with the US government and Gulf Coast states for months to settle billions of dollars of claims resulting from the explosion on April 20, 2010. It is unclear what form of criminal misconduct BP might plead guilty to, Reuters reports.