A US judge today found BP grossly negligent in its actions leading up to the deadly 2010 Macondo spill, a ruling that exposes BP to maximum penalties under the US Clean Water Act.
In a long awaited, 153-page ruling judge Carl Barbier said the spill that followed the April 2010 blowout on the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon that killed 11 workers and led to the worst US offshore oil spill was the result of BP's ‘gross negligence' and ‘willful misconduct.'
Drilling contractor Halliburton and drilling rig owner Transocean were both found negligent, a lesser degree of liability than BP. The judge spread fault between the companies as 67pc for BP, 30pc for Transocean and 3pc for Halliburton.
BP said it disagreed with the ruling from the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana in New Orleans and will appeal it.
"BP believes that an impartial view of the record does not support the erroneous conclusion reached by the District Court," the company said.
BP has maintained the blowout and spill were the result of multiple errors made by many parties, including Halliburton and Transocean, and that it should not be found grossly negligent. BP could face Clean Water Act fines of up to $4,300 per barrel spilled, or billions of dollars. BP has said about 2.5mn bl were spilled while the US Justice Department has pegged the amount at 4.2mn bl.
The judge did not rule on how much oil was spilled but is considering evidence on that question from an earlier trial. In a trail set to begin in January 2015 Barbier will hear evidence about mitigating factors that he should consider when handing down the final penalties.
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