Ex-BP Supervisors Win Dismissal of Some Manslaughter Charges
Dec 10 (Reuters) - Two former BP Plc supervisors won the dismissal on Tuesday of some of the manslaughter charges facing them over the Gulf of Mexico drilling rig explosion that killed 11 people in 2010.
U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval in New Orleans dismissed 11 counts of seaman's manslaughter facing Deepwater Horizon rig well site leaders Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine.
But the judge refused to dismiss 11 other counts of involuntary manslaughter, leaving those and a Clean Water Act violation charge to be heard at a trial starting in June.
David Gerger, a lawyer for Kaluza, said he was reviewing the decision.
A lawyer for Vidrine and representatives for the U.S. Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Kaluza and Vidrine were the two highest-ranking supervisors on board the Deepwater Horizon when disaster struck on April 20, 2010, sending millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
The indictment accused the men of "negligent and grossly negligent" supervision of testing at the well in the run up to the explosion.
The charges were announced on Nov. 15 last year, the same day BP agreed to pay $4 billion and plead guilty 14 criminal counts over conduct leading up to and after the disaster.
A trial is currently underway in the case of another employee, former BP engineer Kurt Mix, who is accused of deleting records related to the estimated size of the spill. He denies wrongdoing.
In his ruling on Tuesday, Duval rejected the arguments by lawyers for Kaluza and Vidrine that the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act did not extend federal law to the outer continental shelf, where Deepwater Horizon was located.
But the judge accepted the defendants' arguments that the seaman's manslaughter charges did not extend to them as oil well site leaders with no navigation function on the Deepwater Horizon.
Duval said his ruling was the first in the statute's 175-year history to apply the law to a drilling rig blow-out, and he acknowledged the "risk of explosion on board deepwater drilling facilities is a grave matter.
But Duval said he "refuses to expand the scope of the statute unnecessarily without certainty as to Congress' intent to do so."
The case is U.S. v. Kaluza, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana, No. 12-cr-00265.
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.
- Weatherford CEO's Rebound Plan Relies On Getting Smaller
- Iran Says Oil Market Is Too Tight For US Zero Exports Target
- China's Squeezed 'Teapots' Eye Petchem Path To Riches
- Baker Hughes: US Drillers Add Oil Rigs For Second Week In Three
- Venezuela Hands China More Oil Presence, But No Mention Of New Funds
- Falcon Oil Declares Commercial Flow Test Results for Shenandoah Well
- Macquarie Strategists Expect Brent Oil Price to Grind Higher
- Japan Failing to Meet Corporate Demand for Clean Power: Amazon
- UK Oil Regulator Publishes New Emissions Reduction Plan
- Pennsylvania County Joins List of Local Govts Suing Big Oil over Climate
- PetroChina Posts Higher Annual Profit on Higher Production
- McDermott Settles Reficar Dispute
- US, SKorea Launch Task Force to Stop Illicit Refined Oil Flows into NKorea
- Russian Navy Enters Warship-Crowded Red Sea Amid Houthi Attacks
- USA Commercial Crude Oil Inventories Increase
- New China Climate Chief Says Fossil Fuels Must Keep a Role
- Oil Demand Outpaces Expectations, Testing Calculus on Peak Crude
- House Passes Protecting American Energy Production Act
- TotalEnergies Restarts Production in Denmark's Biggest Gas Field
- USA Oil and Gas Job Figures Jump
- Republican Lawmakers Say IEA Has Abandoned Energy Security Mission
- Blockchain Demands Attention in Oil and Gas
- Houthis Warn Saudi Arabia of Retaliation If It Backs USA Attacks
- Macquarie Sees USA Oil Production Exiting 2024 at 14MM Barrels Per Day
- Summer Pump Prices Set to Hit $4 a Gallon Just as Americans Hit the Road
- New China Climate Chief Says Fossil Fuels Must Keep a Role
- Chinese Mega Company Makes Major Oilfield Discovery
- VIDEO: Missile Attack Kills Crew Transiting Gulf of Aden
- Norway Regulator Blasts Proposal to Halt New Oil and Gas Permits
- Chinese Mega Company Makes Another Major Oilfield Discovery
- What Is the Biggest Risk to Offshore Oil and Gas Personnel in 2024?
- Vessel Sinks in Red Sea After Missile Strike
- Exxon Rights in Stabroek Do Not Apply to Hess Merger with Chevron: Hess
- Equinor Makes Discovery in North Sea
- Analysts Reveal Latest Oil Price Outlook Following OPEC+ Cut Extension