BP accuses Halliburton of destroying oil spill evidence

BP has accused Halliburton of destroying damaging evidence about the quality of the cement used in the oil well that blew out last year and caused the worst US offshore oil spill.

BP accused Halliburton of intentionally destroying evidence about possible problems with its cement slurry poured into the deep-sea Macondo well about 160km off the Louisiana coast. An oil well must be properly cemented to avoid blowouts.

Also in documents filed in a New Orleans federal court, BP said Halliburton failed to produce incriminating computer modelling data. BP accused Halliburton of claiming the modelling is gone.

BP asked US District Judge Carl Barbier to penalise Halliburton and order a court-sponsored computer forensic team to recover the missing modelling results.

Halliburton insisted the accusations were untrue but made no further comment.

The allegations in the 310-page motion ratcheted up the showdown among BP and contractors Halliburton and Transocean. The three companies have been sparring over blame for the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon blast, which killed 11 workers and led to the release of 206 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

So far, BP, majority owner of the Macondo well, has footed the bill for the emergency response and cleanup.

Also involved are Anadarko Petroleum and Cameron International.

The first trial over the Deepwater Horizon disaster is due to start on February 27 in New Orleans. The first leg is expected to take about three months and determine the liability of each company involved in drilling the Macondo well. There will be other phases over cleanup costs, punitive damages and other claims.

Federal and independent probes of the disaster have found fault in Halliburton’s cement because it failed to properly plug the well. Halliburton used a foamy cement slurry.

In the court filing, BP accused Halliburton employees investigating the Macondo disaster of discarding and destroying early test results they performed on the same batch of cement slurry used in the Macondo well.

BP said Halliburton’s chief cement mixer for Gulf projects testified in depositions that the cement slurry seemed “thin” but that he chose not to alert his bosses.