3 Jan 2012

BP sues Halliburton for Deepwater Horizon costs

Oil company BP has asked contractor Halliburton to pay all of its billions of pounds of costs over the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe.

Gulf of Mexico - Getty

In a filing at the federal court in New Orleans, BP said the company should reimburse it for “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.”

BP has so far paid £13.5bn for the clean-up operation and compensating individuals, businesses and governments.

It has also reserved more than £25.8bn to cover costs related to the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.

The two companies accuse each other of making critical mistakes that caused the blow-out of the well off the Louisiana coast in 2010.

The explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon killed 11 workers and caused the worst offshore spill in US history.

Read more: BP oil spill