BP Files Billion Dollar Lawsuits on One Year Anniversary of Gulf Oil Disaster

On the one year anniversary of the worst oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry that killed 11 workers and created an environmental disaster, BP filed lawsuits totaling over $80 billion against its contractors, Transocean and Halliburton. This was the deadline for companies involved in the spill to file claims against one another.

The lawsuits seek up to the full cost of the disaster, as well as costs, interest and punitive damages.

According to the April 21st reuters.com article, “Lawsuits fly in BP’s Gulf spill blame game”, BP was quoted as saying in in a court filing: “Halliburton’s improper conduct, errors and omissions, including fraud and concealment, caused and/or contributed to the Deepwater Horizon incident.”

In an emailed statement Halliburton was quoted as saying: “We will vigorously defend these claims.”

Joseph Lampel, Professor of Strategy at Cass Business School was quoted as saying about the lawsuits that: “What we know about any corporate battle in court, is that it’s rare for any side to come out better.”