BP PLC (BP, BP.LN) said Monday that it will shield Weatherford International Ltd. (WFT) against private claims related to last year's Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Weatherford agreed to pay the oil company $75 million in exchange for some protection against the storm of litigation that has followed the deadly explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig, which killed 11 and resulted in the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. The company provided BP with casing components for its doomed deepwater well.

Monday's indemnity agreement marks the second settlement BP has reached with its partners and services providers at the Deepwater Horizon site.

Japan's Mitsui & Co. Ltd. (MITSY), which held a 10% stake in the lease where the Deepwater Horizon rig was drilling, last month agreed to pay BP nearly $1.1 billion to help fund cleanup efforts.

Like the Mitsui deal, BP's pact with Weatherford shelters the oilfield service company from claims brought by private businesses and property owners seeking compensatory damages. But it doesn't protect Weatherford from punitive damages or penalties that might come from the government.

Lamar McKay, who heads BP's U.S. unit, said the company is "gratified" that some of the companies involved in the drilling of the Deepwater Horizon well "have stepped forward" to recognize the findings of government investigations that pointed the finger not only at BP, but at drilling practices across the industry.

Weatherford's $75 million, which is being paid by its insurers, will go into a $20 billion fund BP established to compensate Gulf Coast hoteliers, fishermen and others who lost wages last summer as oil washed onto the northern Gulf Coast.

Weatherford Chief Executive Bernard Duroc-Danner said the truce helps solidify the company's relationship with a major customer and eliminates uncertainty about the company's exposure to the disaster.

Weatherford shares rose 1.2% to $17.11 in after-market trading.

Simmons & Co. analyst Bill Herbert said the deal looks like a favorable development for Weatherford, which has put the Deepwater Horizon incident, and its "attendant legal distractions, in the rear view mirror," without biting into the company's cash reserves.

In announcing the settlement BP chided others involved in the disaster to follow the example of Weatherford and Mitsui and "contribute appropriately." BP specifically mentioned rig owner and operator Transocean Ltd. (RIG), 25% stakeholder Anadarko Petroleum Co. (APC) and Halliburton Co. (HAL), which cemented the well.

At the same time that it announced its truce with Weatherford, BP filed complaints in federal court against two suppliers with relatively minor roles in the Deepwater Horizon drilling project. The complaints were filed Monday against Dril-Quip Inc. (DRQ), which provided wellhead systems to the deepwater project, and M-I Swaco, a unit of Schlumberger Ltd. (SLB) that sold BP drilling fluids.

-By Ryan Dezember, Dow Jones Newswires; 713-547-9208; ryan.dezember@dowjones.com

--Drew FitzGerald and Angel Gonzalez contributed to this story.

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