BP hits Halliburton inlatest oil spill claim

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FE Team | Published: April 22, 2011 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

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LONDON, Apr 21 (Reuters): BP Plc has filed a lawsuit against Halliburton, the company that cemented the blown-out well which caused the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a day after claiming $40 billion (24 billion pounds) from rig owner Transocean. BP said Halliburton concealed critical information which could have prevented the disaster. BP did not give a figure for how much money it was seeking from Halliburton but asked for damages of up to the total cost of the spill, which BP has put at $42 billion, plus interest, legal costs and punitive damages. "Halliburton's improper conduct, errors and omissions, including fraud and concealment, caused andor contributed to the Deepwater Horizon incident," BP said in a court filing. "Halliburton knew and understood it was misrepresenting material information," BP added. The suit was filed Wednesday, one year to the day after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, killing 11 men. Last Wednesday, BP also filed a lawsuit against rig operator Transocean. Since the outset of the disaster, BP has sought to blame its contractors, namely Transocean. The Presidential investigation into the report did criticise these companies but levied most of its criticism against BP. BP shares traded up 0.9 per cent against a 0.4 per cent rise in the STOXX Europe 600 oil and gas index at 8:10am. Analysts have said they expect some form of settlement between the companies involved and that the contractors will end up making some contribution to the final bill.