NEW ORLEANS (AP) — BP asked a federal judge Thursday to sanction its cement contractor on the ill-fated Deepwater Horizon drilling project, accusing the company of withholding critical evidence that could have been used at the ongoing trial over the nation's worst offshore oil spill.
In a late-night court filing, BP PLC lawyers cited Halliburton's alleged destruction of cement samples as grounds for U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier to rule that the contractor's cement design drilling project was unstable before the April 2010 blowout of BP's Macondo well.
A Halliburton lawyer disclosed that the company discovered cement samples last Wednesday at a Lafayette laboratory that weren't turned over to the Justice Department for testing after the spill.
BP says its inability to test the missing samples has harmed its ability to defend itself at the trial, which Barbier is presiding over without a jury.
"Halliburton's conduct has undermined the integrity of these proceedings and severely prejudiced BP and the other parties," BP lawyers wrote.
Earlier Thursday, an attorney from Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange's office told Barbier that the state also plans to seek sanctions against Halliburton over the missing cement samples.
Last week, Halliburton lawyer Donald Godwin said the company believes the newly discovered material has no bearing on the case.
But a plaintiffs' attorney, Jeffrey Breit, countered that the samples are cement that a Halliburton employee used for testing of the Macondo well before the disaster.
In an email to the court last week, Halliburton said the newly discovered material was associated with the Kodiak well, which BP also was drilling in the Gulf.
On Monday, according to BP, Halliburton disclosed that the missing samples had the same chemical composition as the cement blend that was used on the Macondo well.
"Halliburton also admitted that the 'Kodiak well cement' had in fact been brought onshore from the Deepwater Horizon when the rig was at the Macondo well," BP lawyers wrote.
During the trial's opening statements, plaintiffs' attorney Jim Roy said the Kodiak cement contained an additive, a defoamer that "destabilizes and is incompatible with foam cement."
"So why would Halliburton risk using this leftover Kodiak cement on the Macondo well and try to convert it to a foam cement when it had defoamer in it? The evidence will show Halliburton was able to save time and save money by doing so," Roy said.
Barbier heard testimony on Tuesday from Tim Quirk, who was a Halliburton laboratory manager. Quirk said he secured all of the samples he believed were related to the Macondo well in a locker and stored others in a warehouse, never suspecting the recently discovered samples could be related to the case.
"I had no way of knowing," he said.
Thursday marked the 16th day of a trial that is expected to last several more weeks. Barring a settlement, Barbier could decide how much more money BP and its contractors owe for their roles in the blowout, which triggered an explosion that killed 11 rig workers and led to millions of gallons of oil spewing into the Gulf.
JUNE 19 Former Saint Steve Gleason, who is paralyzed by ALS, released a statement Tuesday in response to the Atlanta radio station's skit making fun of him and the disease, this Picayune post reports. What did he say? He said he'd accepted the apology of the DJs who did it, notes that at least the incident has got people talking about ALS, and asks anyone who is burning to take action about it to do so -- by helping him fight ALS.
JUNE 19 Blogger Ian McGibboney takes a look at the Gleason incident in this post. He makes a good argument about the difference between having free speech and being free from consequences for your speech (which none of us is). He also admits that many of us got upset before we listened to the skit -- but lets us know that the reality is far worse than we can imagine. It was the incredibly bad judgment, even more than the actual speech, that probably got those DJs fired, he opines.
JUNE 19 Washington Post blogger Aaron Blake writes about Sen. Guillory's switch to the GOP in this post. He writes what most political watchers in Louisiana know: Guillory was a Republican before he decided to run for the senate seat in a mostly-D St. Landry district, and has switched back now that he plans to run for Lt. Gov. in a mostly-R state. But how come Blake missed Guillory's appearance on a TLC pageant show? Now that is a video we'd like to see. (Again).
JUNE 19 Here's another Washington Post blog post about a Louisiana politician, and it's just plain scathing. Ezra Klein says Jindal's Politico post was "insulting" to the intelligence of voters, and adds that Jindal is personifying the "stupid" he's railed against, by being an "elite" who convinces GOP activists of "things that aren't true." Me-ow.
JUNE 19 Here's Gov. Jindal's post in Politico, in which he asks the GOP to get over losing to Obama (again) and stop "the bedwetting." (Uh, what?) He gives his Republican buddies what is probably a nerd's idea of a coach's motivational talk, which starts with a list of accomplishments that they can't seem to exploit and ending with an absurd description of liberals that sounds like a character treatment for a Fox "News" movie scripted by Gordon Liddy. Sure, he's preaching to the choir, but even the choir's not this gullible.
JUNE 19 Lamar Parmentel read Gov. Jindal's post on Politico, but thinks it was so dumb it probably was published in the wrong paper. This post by Lamar on the Daily Kingfish opines that possibly Jindal's post was destined for the Onion -- because the governor couldn't possibly be serious here. If you listen closely, you can hear the staff of the Kingfish giggling.
JUNE 19 Blogger Robert Mann posts from Turkey, a country he has visited several times in the past few years. Mann gives an interesting overview of the current political and societal climate of the country, which -- if you're living under a rock and don't know -- is experiencing protests and turmoil these days. Mann promises to post as much as he can during his trip, which should be fascinating reading.
JUNE 19 Blogger CB Forgotston says the legislature is keeping the vicious cycle going with its funding of new buildings for the community college/technical college system. Universities across the state need maintenance and improvement on existing buildings, and the solution is to build new buildings at other schools? By the time the bonds are paid off, those buildings will be falling down, too, CB says.
Most Read
in case you missed it
Subscribe to this comment's feed