BP Says Halliburton Should Bear All Costs for Gulf Spill - Bloomberg

(Dow Jones Newswires), Jan. 3, 2012

BP said all of its costs and damages from the deadly 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill and explosion should be paid by Halliburton, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday, citing a court filing.

BP had paid more than $21 billion in cleanup costs and economic damages to individuals, businesses and governments harmed by the spill, Bloomberg said, according to the report to its website.

BP wants Halliburton to pay "the amount of costs and expenses incurred by BP to clean up and remediate the oil spill, the lost profits from and/or diminution in value of the Macondo prospect, and all other costs and damages incurred by BP related to the Deepwater Horizon incident and resulting oil spill," the report said, based on the filing in a New Orleans court.

BP and Halliburton both accused each other of making mistakes leading to the explosion and death of 11 people. Halliburton says it is indemnified by BP.

Full story: bloomberg.com

Copyright (c) 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.



WHAT DO YOU THINK?


Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.

James  |  January 14, 2012
I am ashamed of BP. As a Drilling Professional, they embarrass me. As the operator, their personnel made the decisions of how to drill, complete and temporarily abandon the well. Their stupidity of removing the primary well control of drilling fluid without putting a tested barrier in the well caused the blow out. It would be nice to see them quit pointing the finger and accept their responsibility.
Gerry  |  January 07, 2012
The Prime Contractor (BP) controls and owns the well. Isn't it their ultimate responsibility to ensure all parameters are maintained and ensure the operation proceeds in a safe and efficient manner. It is BPs responsibility to provide the resources to ensure it is however, I've contracted for BP and it was not a pleasant experience. It's terrible those 11 families are now without from BP's negligence.
Jack Beken  |  January 06, 2012
That claim that BP is making is not going anywhere. Halliburton has emails, documents and full proof that BP didn't care about their recommendations. Those proofs have been shown several times during the investigation. BP is just trying to get some money from Halliburton or is trying to hide the fact that Halliburton sued BP over damages long time ago.
SJ Hewitt  |  January 06, 2012
It is quite amazing how fast the argument moves from the facts and reality to one of finger pointing and guess working when trying to lay blame for cost recovery Quite simply a operator paid for and was given lawful permission to drill in GOM for resources owned by the USA which the operator would extract and turn to share holder profitability with the express understanding that the permission came with the responsibility for the operation to be conducted in a manner as to cause no harm to the people and environment of the USA in this case the operator a USA registered operating entity of a foreign comapny staffed in the majority by USA citizens failed in that duty.
Bubba  |  January 06, 2012
Company man, school boy, 35 yrs experience, 5 yrs experience.. does it matter? At the end of the day we need to get rid of the "Cowboys" and have Co-Men that have the guts to stand up to the office in town.. they are ultimately the ones calling the shots! Who the heck doesn't know that?! If it does not look right or steps have been taken to keep on track regardless of protocol... DO NOT.. DO IT!!!!! This is still going on as I write this.... so what else is new.. they need to throw these jokers in jail.. fines.. don't cut it..
bob menage  |  January 06, 2012
who i wander on rigs is responsible for signing off the pressure chart that shows that a casing is not leaking and then if everything is OK giving the instruction to displace to seawater ?
Billy  |  January 06, 2012
Robert: The inexperienced hand you are referring to, Mr. Kaluza (60 years old), was not the lead company man on the job. That man, Mr. Vidrine, was 62 years old and according to this link, the most experienced BP man on the rig. There were no "schoolboys" working as companymen on this particular rig. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/08/us/08rig.html?pagewanted=all. In my experience as a service contractor, although there are usually 2 company men on a rig, one of them is the lead and that one makes the key decisions. You cant run a rig with two heads. That said, I would feel uncomfortable if the lead company man had very little experience. This was not the case on the Deepwater Horizon. I would also like to say that the industry suffers from company men who begin their opinions with "Ive had X number of years doing this" as if this has anything to do with the subject at hand. It is an arrogant statement that leads to potentially overlooked factors of safety and efficiency. Lead companymen should be open minded -this encourages contractors to notify them about risks they feel are notable instead of being ridiculed for lack of experience. By the way, those "schoolboys" are educated by some of the best schools in the country in methods of drilling and well control that are at the forefront of technology. I believe they know more about the subject of drilling than you are giving them credit for. Experience is a necessity for a qualified company man, but open-mindedness is important as well.
Janet Peters  |  January 06, 2012
I live in Duncan, OK. Halliburton put food on my family's table beginning in 1948 and provided money for me to go to college. All you cementing tool guys out there are still using tools that my Father designed and drawings/catalogs that my Mother drew and airbrushed by hand. There are thousands of people in mid-America with a similar story. I put in 30 yrs as a girl mechanical engineer with Schlumberger Wireline, FMC, Kvaerner and others. I spent 15 hours in a project meeting at BP Houston once. They called for food since we vendors were starting to get weak. There is a reason why BPs campus in Houston is called the puzzle palace. Many of my colleagues have sent intel on Macondo citing as many as 15 different contributing factors, decision errors, well string design changes, etc. that began to occur BEFORE the well was completed. I wonder how the legal counselors will bury all of BPs mistakes and be able to hang the whole mess on Halliburton, or Transocean for that matter?
Steven Cupp  |  January 06, 2012
Company man should never have taken the weight off the hole. Did I not here of a money saving effort on drilling fluids that came back and bit him.
Jack Nelson  |  January 06, 2012
After many years with Drilling Contractors, and being at the daily operational meetings held by the Operator (BP, or whoever), there is no way that BP can hold Halliburton responsible. The BP person in charge, on board, gave the decision as to what would be done. The Transocean personnel seemed to not agree, but I have seen no evidence that they contacted their Management on shore to advise them of the situation. (this would have led to serious consequences if it had occurred on the rigs I managed, no matter what time of day or night). Halliburton may have made mistakes, but, it also seems their recommendation to run 21 cenralizers was overridden by the BP rep, who was more concerned with being behind schedule and over budget. So be it. Mother Nature does not care about this. She expects you to follow the rules, or you get a swift, hard, kick in the teeth.
John C  |  January 06, 2012
Sad day for the industry in general. BP owns the well....BP is responsible. I own stock in both companies, but that is the way it is...
Ruslan Zakirov  |  January 05, 2012
Gents, A lot of these issues happening around in our industry with fatalities and casualties are mostly driven from the upper management. It is not a secrete that a bunch of oil companies and drilling contractors are headed by financial people without operational background. Their main target is to generate as much profit as possible hoping for the best and neglecting real safety. The easiest way to generate a higher profit is to cut OPEX which means reducing maintenance and safety expenses. When working for Seadrill, I accidentally disclosed that NONE of new-built jack-ups BOPs and K & C manifolds were serviced. There was a great cheer in the office between managers when West Atlas burnt in Australia as the full cost of the rig was going to be reimbursed by insurers. Last terrific example is Kolskaya rig breaking all applicable Russian Arctic waters rules for rig tow. So, to my opinion it is up to the top management and not that much up to company-men (who are actually a hotline operators) to safeguard the HSE in the business.
MikeM  |  January 05, 2012
So BPs position is that Halliburton is wholly, solely and exclusively responsible for the spill and all damages. Does that mean BP will refund the $250 million they got from Cameron and the $75 million cash settlement from Weatherford?
Pierre COLIN  |  January 05, 2012
Totally agree with BP.Halliburton must, as a minimum share, the costs and expenses as Halliburton was involved in the disaster.
MikeM  |  January 04, 2012
So BPs position is that Halliburton is wholly, solely and exclusively responsible for the spill and all damages. Does that mean BP will refund the $250 million they got from Cameron and the $75 million cash settlement from Weatherford?
Robert  |  January 04, 2012
I've been in this 35 years. Companymen on the rigs run the show, not the Drilling Contractors. What is going on, companymen on rigs now days have no rig time and don't even know what to do. BUT, they are the boss. In my area, BP just hired a Companyman to watch a daylight rig, this guy has no time on any rig and we all know this. So are we all in danger, yes we are. So this guy has a friend and got the job WOW. You wrote about this with Chevron and a school boy. We all think that you can't be a Companyman on a any rig without 10 years of rig time. But lets kill some more people because of these Companymen and friends that hire them. Something has to be said. 10 years on rig no less to be a COMPANYMAN. I know at least 10 of these guys and they dont know nothing. all they have is school. School is not the answer, Rig time is. Working your way up the ladder, so you know all aspects of the job. But most of these guys dont have school so the Companys are passing them by. 11 people died in the gulf "WHO" was the companyman in charge????? Ive been a companyman for 15 years and its very sad to see this going on in the Industry, Very Sad. These school boys with no rig time should not be watching rigs of any kind. All the people that I work with on rig sites are scared for their Safety. We all know this and it needs to stop NOW. A Companyman with no rig time, and a Rig crew with no Rig time, and a Pusher with no rig time, Tell me what do you think is going to happen, the Companymans the BOSS. Someones going to DIE. This is where we are at in this Industry. Rigzone can you help. you guys are in the lime light of the Industry. Robert
kilpatrick  |  January 04, 2012
No 1 - I know from past experience that Transocean does not care about safety, only profits. No 2 - maintaining the BOP, a lot of drilling companies do not call out the manufacturer to do the repairs and some do not buy the manufacturer's parts because of the costs. No 3 - BP does take some short cuts, it all depends who is on call at the time or if there will be any down time.
Avelino  |  January 04, 2012
Our prayers go to all those who lost family in that tragic accident
Blair Wylie  |  January 04, 2012
Could Obama tell BP, Transocean, Halliburton, Cameron, etc. that whatever money they win from each other in civil suits will be taken and applied to help the families destroyed, clean-up efforts, improve industry safety, etc.? Could the offshore industry band together to lobby for this? Because they all collectively have damaged our reputation, driven the regulators to intervene more, cost us a lot of money (and made oil sands and shale gas developmenet look a lot better).
Andy  |  January 03, 2012
These are 2 of the most "misguided and DUMBEST" companies out there... They have meetings to schedule meetings,,, but when something goes wrong..."no body knows anything"!!!
NNAMDI MBASO  |  January 03, 2012
I really don't undastand why BP is asking Halliburton to pay the costs of the clean up because they indemnified halliburton against such events happening. The oil industry allocates risk in a different way from what the law says and this is how it has been done since. These companies had indemnified each other against the event of cause damage to property and loss of life by their staff. For BP to now seek to throw away to the terms of an indemnification agreement which has been practiced since the oil industry began is only self serviving and will cause dire ramifications for the entire oil industry. This is so as contractor companies will refuse to take up these kind of enormous risk will accordingly will not be able to to get insurance for such risk. These companies may refuse to do business as they would not want the possibility of paying out such huge damages or compensation from such risks. Bp should uphold the terms of their indemnification agreement for the good of the entire oil industry.
Begneaux  |  January 03, 2012
BP wants Halliburton to pay "the amount of costs and expenses incurred by BP to clean up and remediate the oil spill, the lost profits from and/or diminution in value of the Macondo prospect, and all other costs and damages incurred by BP related to the Deepwater Horizon incident and resulting oil spill," Good luck with that. If anyone has ever worked on a BP well they should know that BP follows their safety program to the teeth...... as long as it is convenient and they are not too busy or in a pinch. BP also states monitor in and monitor out at all times. BP chose not to monitor fluid coming out of the hole; that alone could have prevented this issue. Halliburton had 3 cement tests that failed, BP ran another test that "passed." In short there were many factors including faults by BP, Halliburton and its other contractors and they should all pay their share. Asking Halliburton to pick up the tab is asinine. I think I just lost the respect I regained for BP...
Tommy Bonck  |  January 03, 2012
Who ever was responsible for maintenance on the BOPS, and responsible for the drilling of the wells, should have fixed the downhole BOP, and they never should have started the well completion, removing the mud and replacing that with water..
Sedric  |  January 03, 2012
I really don't understand how these two companies, that call themselves leaders in safety in the workplace but neither, wants to be response able for there actions. Yes Bp you all have paid lots of money out of pocket, but remember this eleven people didn't go home to there family, and you cant pay enough money. I for myself, believe all the companies should be paying fines, no matter who was at fault. Maybe its time to start following the safety rules, that these companies have in place rather than breaking them when it it conflicts with getting oil or gas out of the earth.

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