<p>BP Plc will pay $4.5 billion in penalties and plead guilty to felony misconduct in the Deepwater Horizon disaster that caused the worst offshore oil spill in the country's history.</p><br /><p>The company said on Thursday that the settlement includes a $1.256 billion criminal fine, the largest such levy in U.S. history.</p><br /><p>A settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is also part of the deal, as are payments to the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation and the National Academy of Sciences.</p><br /><p>"Getting this fine out of the way is a big hurdle for the stock price, it's a big overhang. So once this is done it then leads onto the civil claims which should be done in February and this will set a sort of level and people can start working out what level these civil claims are going to be," said EXT analyst Joe Rundle.</p><br /><p>The April, 2010 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 workers. </p><br /><p>The oil well then spewed 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf over 87 days, fouling shorelines from Texas to Florida.</p><br /><p>The oil company said it would plead guilty to 11 felony counts related to the workers' deaths, a felony related to obstruction of Congress and two misdemeanors.</p>
