Source: RawStory
Tens of billions of dollars will be at stake when BP heads to a US court this month to determine how much it owes for the massiveGulf of Mexico oil spill and how much it can shift to subcontractors.
Several government probes have castigated BP, rig operatorTransocean and Halliburton – which was responsible for the runaway well’s faulty cement job — for cutting corners and missing warning signs that could have prevented the disaster.
The April 20, 2010 explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon drilling rig killed 11 workers, blackened beaches in five US states and devastated the Gulf Coast’s tourism and fishing industries.
It is now up to a federal judge to determine whether the deadly missteps constitute gross negligence, how much of the blame rests with each party and whether punitive damages should be imposed.
“There’s only one path for BP to take — blame it on as many other people as possible and make sure it’s not cast as gross negligence,” said Blaine LeCesne, a law professor at Loyola University in New Orleans who has been following the case closely.
“That way they may be able to limit their cost to $30 or $40 billion as opposed to $100 billion.”
Judge Carl Barbier – an expert in maritime law with a reputation for efficiency — has consolidated hundreds of spill-related lawsuits into a single case set to begin on February 27 in New Orleans.
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