Judge approves BP's guilty plea to manslaughter, $4B penalties - NBC Right Now/KNDO/KNDU Tri-Cities, Yakima, WA |

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana. - A federal judge has approved an agreement for the BP oil company to plead guilty to several charges including manslaughter, and to pay penalties for 2010 oil spill.

The agreement includes BP paying a record $4 billion in criminal penalties for Gulf of Mexico spill. 

BP agreed in November to plead guilty to charges involving the deaths of 11 workers who died while on the drilling rig that exploded, and then for lying to Congress. 

More than 200 million gallons of oil spewed from the well about 50 miles southeast of the Louisiana coast before it was capped three months later.