ENERGY

Exxon Settles Alaska Oil Spill Suit: The oil company settled out of court with Sperry Marine Inc. over claims that steering equipment made by Sperry malfunctioned and led the tanker Exxon Valdez to run aground in Alaska, said Les Rogers, an Exxon spokesman. Exxon had sued Sperry Marine and its former owner Unisys Corp. for an undisclosed sum, claiming that faulty equipment caused the tanker to hit a reef in Alaska’s Prince William Sound in 1989 and spill 11 million gallons of oil in one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history. Neither company would give details of the settlement, but Unisys spokesman Peter Hynes said it was “a large amount of money.�