BP’s court date could cost them billions for deadly oil spill

Tens of billions of dollars will be at stake when BP heads to a US court this month to determine how much it owes for the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill and how much it can shift to subcontractors.

Several government probes have castigated BP, rig operator Transocean and Halliburton — which was responsible for the runaway well’s faulty cement job — for cutting corners and missing warning signs that could have prevented the disaster.

The April 20, 2010, explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon drilling rig killed 11 workers, polluted beaches in five US states and devastated the Gulf Coast’s tourism and fishing industries.