BP seeks spill costs from Halliburton
Court filing seeks 'all costs and damages incurred by BP related to the Deepwater Horizon incident and resulting spill' in case against contractor

BP has called on its contractor Halliburton to pay all costs and expenses it incurred to clean up the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, according to a court filing by BP's lead trial attorney.

BP has spent $14bn (£9bn) in the Gulf Coast region in its response to the spill and set aside $20bn for economic claims and restoration work, according to its website. The filing did not give a figure on the amount of damages BP is seeking from Halliburton, which provided cement contracting services on the Macondo well project.

The company seeks "the amount of costs and expenses incurred by BP to clean up and remediate the oil spill, the lost profits from and/or diminution in value of the Macondo prospect, and all other costs and damages incurred by BP related to the Deepwater Horizon incident and resulting oil spill," according to the filing by lawyer Don Haycraft in federal court in New Orleans.

A BP spokesman declined to put a figure on the costs and damages but said "the filing documents speak for themselves". Halliburton officials were not immediately available for comment.

The explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig in April 2010 killed 11 workers and spewed more than 4 million barrels of oil into the Gulf. It has sparked a series of lawsuits and federal citations against the companies involved.

Last month, Cameron International Corp agreed a $250m settlement with BP to help pay for costs associated with the spill, raising hopes that deals between the British oil firm and two other contractors could follow. Yet settlement agreements with two remaining parties, Halliburton and Transocean, have so far proved elusive.

Transocean, the owner and operator of the Deepwater Horizon rig, and Halliburton, which supplied cement to cap the well, are both being sued by BP to share the cost of the spill and cleanup, while the two have launched lawsuits of their own.

(Reuters / The Guardian, 03/01/2012)