BP Sues Halliburton Over Gulf Oil Spill Cost

British oil firm BP is suing Halliburton over the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe that killed 11 people and spewed millions of litres of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

In a filing at the federal court in New Orleans, BP said the cement contractor should reimburse it for the cost of cleaning up what was dubbed the worst ocean oil spill in US history.

BP also wants compensation for the lost profits from the well and "all other costs and damages".

Markets reacted to the news with BP share prices opening up 1% on the first trading day since the new-year holiday break.

The oil firm has already paid $21bn (£13.5bn) for the clean-up operation and compensating individuals, businesses and governments.

It has also reserved more than $40bn (£25.8bn) to cover costs related to the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.

The company previously said it expected the costs of sealing the blown out well, cleaning up the damage, compensating those affected and government fines to reach $42bn (£27bn).

BP and Halliburton accuse each other of making critical mistakes that caused the blow-out of the well off the Louisiana coast in April 2010.

A report released in November spread blame for the disaster between the UK oil company, the Deepwater Horizon rig operator Transocean and US regulators.

Eleven workers were killed in the explosion and 4.9 million barrels of oil spilled into the ocean before the leak was finally capped.

The US government immediately asked the Coast Guard and the offshore drilling regulator BOEMRE to investigate.

A slew of lawsuits and federal citations have followed against the companies involved.

Last month, Cameron International Corp agreed a $250m (£160m) settlement with BP to help pay costs associated with the spill.

But agreements with Halliburton, as well as Transocean, have proved elusive. The two companies have launched lawsuits of their own.
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I think they have as much chance of winning that case as sorting Europe’s debt crisis out before March. Halliburton pay far too much tax to the USA Fed Gov to be allowed to lose. The American Gov will want to avoid any connection with the UK based company. It is British in name only and only because it has never been moved from companies house. In my opinion, the company should have had that British status taken from them at the time of the disaster. They are a worldwide corporation and should be acknowledged as such.

Be well IAN 2411