2011年4月21日星期四

BP Sues Two Companies Over Oil Spill

BP has already paid billions of dollars in the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill. On Wednesday, it filed court papers in hopes that those billions of dollars, and more to come, will not be paid out of its pockets alone.


The oil giant filed suits in New Orleans against Transocean, the owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig, and against Cameron International, the company that made the blowout preventer that failed last year, on the deadline for bringing suits in the federal litigation surrounding the disaster.


The company said in a statement that the move was “to ensure that all parties involved in the Macondo well are appropriately held accountable.”


The claims against Transocean, BP said, “are consistent with the conclusions reached by the presidential commission, which found that Transocean missed critical signs that hydrocarbons were flowing up the riser and failed to take appropriate actions to shut in the Macondo well.”


Cameron, BP asserted, designed and built a faulty preventer and negligently maintained it.


Transocean responded with a statement calling BP’s suit “specious and unconscionable” and laid the blame squarely on BP as operator. Transocean and Cameron filed similar cross claims and counterclaims on Wednesday.


A spokeswoman for Cameron, Rhonda Barnat, said in an e-mailed statement, “It is not surprising that the companies are filing to protect their indemnity rights.”


 

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