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Oil major BP has reached an out of court settlement with six former staff who left the company to later begin working for Hong Kong-listed Brightoil Petroleum and were accused of breach of contract.

According to court documents, a settlement was reached on October 13th, a few days before a re-trial conference was due to take place on October 18th.

A lawsuit for breach of contract was filed by BP in July 2010 against six former members of staff who formed part of the company's fuel oil and marine fuels teams in Singapore. BP alleged that the six had breached their fiduciary duties to the company, breached their employment contracts, including their fidelity duties, as well misusing confidential information.

The defendants to the suit included BP's former global fuel oil trading head Quek Chin Thean and the former head of its marine fuels business in Asia, Clarence Chang, trading manager John Foo, head of operations for all oil products in Asia, Paul John Bradshaw, legal manager Simon Cheong and administrative executive Laura Kuan.

In its lawsuit BP said Quek and Cheong masterminded the departures of 20 staff and carried out negotiations with Brightoil whilst they were still employed by the oil major.

In August last year, Quek Chin Thean, Chang and Foo countersued for wrongful dismissal, claiming that they had been wrongly dismissed and owed an unspecified amount of money by BP. The three counter claimed that their dismissal seven days before the end of their gardening leave, on July 9th 2010, was wrongful, caused them “great distress”, damaged their reputations and that they suffered material loss as a result.

In court papers Quek said that at least 40 employees had left BP’s Asian trading operations in 2010 and that the record loss in the second quarter following the Gulf of Mexico oil spill could have prompted some workers to leave BP. Policy changes on the trading floor and a change in the way bonuses were paid were also quoted as possible reasons for the wave of departures.

Meanwhile, Kuan claimed that she was owed $379,002 (approximately US$280,000), which the oil major wrongfully withheld after she left. Bradshaw and Cheong did not file counter claims.

Speaking to news agency Reuters today, a BP spokesperson is quoted as saying: "BP and the ex-employees have now settled the litigation action. We have no further comment to make."