Anadarko Wants Texas Justices to Grant $8.5 Million Tax Refund

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. asked the Texas Supreme Court to rule that that the $4 billion in settlement funds it paid to BP PLC after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster resolved a contractual dispute and therefore was tax-deductible.

Anadarko sought to deduct the payment—which BP used to pay people injured by the incident—as costs of goods sold. Anadarko asked the justices last July to overturn a 2023 state appeals court ruling that the payments covered tort liabilities, not general expenses for the cleanup.

The Texas Legislature created a broad cost-of-goods-sold deduction for oil and gas exploration and production activities to encourage ...