guardian.co.uk,Associated Press, Tuesday 6 December 2011
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| The Deepwater Horizon blast, which killed 11 workers, led to the biggest oil spill in US history, which affected wildlife such as pelicans. Photograph: Sean Gardner/Reuters |
BP hasaccused Halliburton of destroying damaging evidence relating to last year's Gulfof Mexico oil spill.
In a courtfiling, BP has alleged that the US oil services firm of intentionallydestroying evidence about possible problems with its cement slurry poured intothe deep-sea Macondo well about 100 miles (160 km) off the Louisiana coast. Anoil well must be cemented properly to avoid blowouts.
Also in thedocuments filed in a New Orleans federal court, BP accuses Halliburton offailing to produce incriminating computer modelling evidence.
BP asked aUS judge to penalise Halliburton and order a court-sponsored computer forensicteam to recover the modelling results.
Halliburtonhas told media outlets that the accusations are untrue.
Theallegations in the 310-page motion add to a showdown among BP and thecontractors Halliburton and Transocean over blame in the Deepwater Horizonblast in April 2010, which killed 11 workers and led to 206m US gallons (780mlitres) of crude oil escaping into the Gulf of Mexico. So far, BP, the majorityowner of the Macondo well, has footed the bill for the emergency response andcleanup.
Alsoinvolved are Anadarko Petroleum and Cameron International.
The firsttrial over the disaster is scheduled to start 27 February in New Orleans. It isexpected to last three months and determine the liability of each companyinvolved in drilling the Macondo well. There will be other phases over cleanupcosts, punitive damages and other claims.
US federaland independent investigations into the disaster have found fault inHalliburton's cementing because it failed to properly plug the well. The firmused a foamy cement slurry.
In Monday'scourt filing, BP alleges that Halliburton employees discarded and destroyedearly test results they performed on the same batch of cement slurry used inthe Macondo well during an internal investigation into the disaster.
BP saidHalliburton's chief cement mixer for Gulf projects testified in depositionsthat the cement slurry seemed "thin" to him but that he chose not towrite about his findings to his bosses out of fear he would be misinterpreted.
"Ididn't want to put anything on an email that could be twisted, andturned," Rickey Morgan, the Halliburton cement expert, said indepositions. He worked at a laboratory in Duncan, Oklahoma.
"Uponreviewing these latest testing results, Halliburton employees destroyed recordsof the testing as well as the physical cement samples used in thetesting," BP alleged.
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| Mistakes: A leaked internal memo from BP found that engineers misread pressure data on the Deepwater |
