BP Oil Spill Investigation: Companies Wants U.S. Probes Barred

The companies involved in the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history are trying to prevent government investigations blaming them for the disaster from being used against them by the people and businesses who are suing them.

Billions of dollars are potentially at stake in a trial scheduled for February to determine whether rig owner Transocean can limit what it pays those making claims under maritime law and to assign percentages of fault to Transocean and other companies involved.

BP, Transocean and cement contractor Halliburton filed motions late Monday in federal court in New Orleans seeking to keep certain government oil spill reports out of the civil case. BP also wants a judge to bar plaintiffs' lawyers from using past criminal, civil and regulatory proceedings against the British firm in the civil case. The companies cited rules of evidence and other procedural issues.

The filings deal with the two most comprehensive federal investigations of the disaster. One that was issued in September by the U.S. Coast Guard and the agency that regulates offshore drilling concluded that BP bears ultimate responsibility for the disaster. The other report by the presidential oil spill commission blamed the blowout on a series of failures involving all the players.

There was no immediate ruling.

In Washington, U.S. Rep. Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat and ranking member of the House Committee on Natural Resources, scolded the companies for making the request. He noted that the CEOs of the three companies recently refused to appear before his committee to testify about the findings in the Coast Guard-Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement report.

"Whether it's Congress or courtrooms, these companies are trying to whitewash away this dark period in our nation's environmental history. It's not enough for BP, Halliburton and Transocean to avoid talking to Congress about these oil spill reports, they don't want anyone in the courts talking about them either," Markey said in a statement Tuesday.

The Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana in April 2010 killed 11 rig workers and led to more than 200 million gallons of oil spewing from a well a mile beneath the sea. The well was capped three months later, but not before hundreds of miles of coastline were stained, seafood and tourism businesses were devastated, and a fragile ecosystem was damaged.

BP PLC, which owned the well and was leasing the rig from Transocean Ltd., has already spent or committed tens of billions of dollars to clean up the oil and compensate victims. It is at risk of having to pay out billions more depending on the outcome of the civil trial involving hundreds of lawsuits. Government fines and penalties also could add significant liability.

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Follow Harry R. Weber at http://www.facebook.com/HarryRWeberAP

Comments

[NonlinearEd]

02:37 PM on 11/10/2011

If a person intentionally ignored safe procedures which cost 11 people their lives and devastated the environment and the livelihoods of so many people they would be fined and jailed thereby removing them from society and preventing further harm. If citizens united grants personhood to corporations why should BP not also be punished in a way that similarly eliminates any chance of causing further harm to society? Just sayin.'

[Roadrun]

08:18 PM on 11/09/2011

That's just plain funny. If this doesn't work will they petition the court to make people wear mittens so nobody can point fingers at them anymore?

Does this demonstrate that if one has a certain amount of money their brain shuts down?

[Fred997]

12:23 AM on 11/09/2011

So what they are saying is that there has been a serious crime and they have decided for the courts that the key evidence should be shut up. Just be quiet and let's move on. No need to investigate further and let's move on. Sounds like a play from the Republican playbook.

[Sunwyn Ravenwood]

09:12 PM on 11/08/2011

It took over 20 years for Exxon to finish an endless stream of appeals in the Exxon Valdez case, and finally, grudgingly, start to pay out a tiny percentage of what it owed to the people whose lives were ruined. Did you really think BP would act any differently?

What we need is for the US gov't to seize all of BP's assets in the USA and hold them in escrow until the court battles are over and the final payments are made. This would encourage them to get things done a lot quicker. It will never happen, of course, Big Oil owns both of the major political parties, whatever they may say to the contrary.

[roadiematt]

09:05 PM on 11/08/2011

I'm sure if they hire more lobbyist that their problem will disappear

[jsgaetano]

08:12 PM on 11/08/2011

I wonder if the Republicans are preparing another apology to BP.

[CanadaStan]

07:57 PM on 11/08/2011

BP needs their asses paddled, they have a .long history of putting money before safety.

It's been a few years since I worked on the drilling rigs, but they made a lot of very stupid and very risky calls on that well.

[DANIELISTICALL]

06:46 PM on 11/08/2011

US allowed drilling without required permits: lawsuit
(AFP) – May 14, 2010
WASHINGTON — A troubled US government agency tasked with managing oil exploration allowed BP and other oil companies to drill in the Gulf of Mexico without first obtaining required permits, a complaint said.
The Department of the Interior is well aware of its obligations under the law, as well of the harm to endangered whales that can occur from oil industry operations, yet it has simply decided it cannot be bothered," Sakashita said in a statement.
"You and I have to follow the law, but Interior Secretary Salazar seems to think that he and the oil companies he is supposedly overseeing do not. That is unacceptable."
MMS also regularly overruled staff biologists and engineers who raised concerns about the safety and environmental impact of drilling proposals in Alaska and the gulf, the Times said, citing current and former scientists with the agency.

[GreenInGreeneInc]

05:41 PM on 11/08/2011

total lack of accountability

[DANIELISTICALL]

04:06 PM on 11/08/2011

Environment
Whale, Dolphin Deaths Twice Normal Rate in Gulf
—By Julia Whitty
| Fri Oct. 21, 2011 3:00 AM PDT
The latest NOAA report on unusual strandings of whales and dolphins in the northern Gulf of Mexico finds they're still dying at twice the normal rate 18 months after BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster.

[SouthOfProgress]

04:01 PM on 11/08/2011

Take em down.
BP is guilty of obstruction of justice on multiple levels.
They should count themselves lucky they are in civil court.
There should be criminal charges.

[doomonyou]

03:38 PM on 11/08/2011

The answer to their motion to suppress evidence will also be the answer to whether our justice system has been bought and paid for.

[DANIELISTICALL]

03:31 PM on 11/08/2011

DEAR BRITTISH PETROLEUM WE ARE SORRY FOR GETTING SALTWATER IN YOUR OIL........

Do you really think that B/P cleaned up ALL that oil this quick???? Their so called DISBURSEMENT was really a substance that made the oil sink to the bottom of the gulf . That is why HAY was not used to collect it but hay would obviously have been seen sinking,,,,IF YOU CAN NOT SEE IT ,, IT IS NOT THERE RIGHT?,,,,,,,,,WRONG B/P the fishermen of the gulf will know it when they can not sell their catch for years to come,,,,,GOOD THING YOU GOT THEM TO SIGN WAIVERS ,SO THEY CAN NOT SUE YOU…………
Gulf fishing was crippled, as thousands of square miles were immediately closed. But even after some of these areas reopened, scientists and fishermen alike worried about the long-term effect of contamination on the area's bountiful aquatic life. Recently, evidence has emerged to suggest that the oil spill may have an impact far beyond the Gulf, threatening one of the world's most lucrative fishing species.

[Robert Fanney]

03:26 PM on 11/08/2011

Yet one more example of corporate abuse of power.

[ModerateRepub]

03:02 PM on 11/08/2011

Let Joe Barton apologize for them, that should make everything better.