Civil trial opens over 2010 spill that dumped millions of barrels into Gulf of Mexico
Nearly three years after a catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a multi-billion dollar civil case against British Petroleum and the other companies involved is set to open in court.
As the case opens on Monday, US prosecutors are determined to prove that gross negligence caused the April 2010 blast that killed 11 workersand sank the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig, sending millions of barrels of oil gushing into the sea.
BP is equally determined to avoid such a finding, which would drastically increase fines against the company to as much as $17bn.
“Gross negligence is a very high bar that BP believes cannot be met in this case,” said RupertBondy, the firm’s general counsel.
“This was a tragic accident, resulting from multiple causes and involving multiple parties.”
BP hopes to shift much of the blame, and cost, to rig operator Transocean and subcontractorHalliburton, which was responsible for a faulty cement job on board the offshore drilling platform.
The first phase of the civil trial will determine the cause and apportionfault for the disaster.
The second phase, not expected to start for several months, will determine exactly how much oil was spilled in orderto calculate environmental fines.
The US government on Tuesday agreed not to count the 810,000 barrels of oil BP siphoned out of the runaway wellbefore it could spill into the sea.
But a complicated battle looms over the rest, as BP insists the government overestimated how much oil gushed out ofthe well by “at least 20 percent”.
The third phase will deal with environmental and economic damages.
Source: AlJazeera
