The World : Oil Rig Disaster Payments

Occidental Petroleum Corp. has agreed to pay $180 million in compensation to victims’ families and survivors of the Piper Alpha oil-rig fire disaster in the North Sea on July 6. Lawyers for the families of 126 of the 167 people killed and for 50 of the 62 survivors said after negotiations in Manchester, England, that they will urge their clients to accept the offer from Los Angeles-based Occidental, the Piper platform’s principal owner. A source close to the negotiations said the average payment per family will be a little more than $1 million. Some of the other families plan to sue Occidental in U.S. courts, where they believe they may get larger sums.