A US jury is deciding whether a former BP engineer broke the law or harmlessly swiped his finger across a mobile phone when he deleted hundreds of text messages in the aftermath of the deadly Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

An ex-BP engineer has been charged with destroying evidence tied to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

The first criminal charges in the Deepwater Horizon disaster have been filed against a former BP engineer who allegedly destroyed evidence.