BP and its partners in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill have unleashed a $100 billion-plus barrage of legal claims against each other a year after the rig blast killed 11 workers and created an environmental disaster.
On the anniversary of the world's worst marine oil spill, BP filed lawsuits totalling more than $80 billion against Transocean and Halliburton. In a separate action yesterday, BP sued Houston-based Cameron International Corp, the maker of the blow-out preventer, the so-called fail-safe device that neglected to automatically shut down the well.
BP is seeking up to the full cost of the disaster - estimated at $42 billion - plus costs, interest and punitive damages from each of the companies that helped it drill the doomed well.
Meanwhile, BP's partners in the well, Anadarko Petroleum and Japan's Mitsui, filed a lawsuit against it, challenging BP's demands that they contribute to the cost of the clean-up effort.
Wednesday was the deadline - one year after the disaster - for companies connected to the spill to file claims against each other.
Analysts said the companies probably did not want the cases to ever get to court, as this would lead to a spectacle that would further damage their already battered images.
Instead, the suits were seen as tactical moves ahead of settlements that could see some of the burden shared. The litigation is expected to drag on for years.
So far, BP has met the full cost of the clean-up effort alone and is paying compensatory damages to those people in the Gulf area who were affected.
BP said Halliburton concealed critical information that could have prevented the disaster. 'Halliburton's improper conduct, errors and omissions, including fraud and concealment, caused and/or contributed to the Deepwater Horizon incident,' BP said in a court filing.
Halliburton, which said it would 'vigorously defend' itself against the claims, filed its own lawsuit against BP in Texas state court on Tuesday charging BP with failing to accept responsibility for the disaster, as called for in its contract.
Since the outset of the disaster, BP has sought to blame its contractors. The presidential investigation into the report did criticise these companies, but directed most of its criticism at BP.
Service providers' contracts with operators usually provide indemnities against any environmental damage that may result from their work, and one analyst said this limited BP's opportunities to recoup cash from Transocean or Halliburton.
