Texas Sues Companies Connected to Macondo Oil Spill

The state of Texas filed a lawsuit Friday against BP plc, Transocean Ltd. and other parties involved in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, seeking damages related to the affects of the oil spill.

Texas is the fifth Gulf of Mexico state to file claims seeking lost tax revenue, lost revenue from state parks, damages to natural resources and civil penalties for each day that oil was spilled and for every barrel of oil that was illegally discharged, the lawsuit, which was filed by the office of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott in Beaumont, stated.

The state accused the companies of violating Texas environmental laws and "engaging in willful and wanton misconduct," said state Attorney General Greg Abbott in a released statement to Bloomberg. "Because parties to date have been unable to fully resolve claims related to the disaster, the state filed today's enforcement action to preserve the state's claims against BP and other defendants."

"They won't be commenting on the Texas lawsuit," a BP spokesperson told Rigzone.

The lawsuit names several companies as defendants, including BP, Transocean, Halliburton Co. and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. Texas follows the lead of other states that have filed lawsuits, including Louisiana, Alabama –both states sued in 2010 – and Mississippi and Florida, which filed lawsuits last month.

The companies involved in the spill are liable for the full cost of restoring harmed natural resources, or "in the alternative," should pay as much as $350 million in natural resources damages, as calculated under the state's natural resources code, Texas said in the complaint.

In addition, a federal judge threw out an obstruction of Congress charge Monday against former BP executive David Rainey. The former vice president of exploration was accused of lying about the amount of oil that flowed from the well.

In November, Rainey pleaded not guilty to charges of making false statements and obstruction of Congress for allegedly providing bogus estimates of how quickly oil was spilling from BP's runaway well in the days after the initial blowout.

U.S. District Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt dismissed one of two obstruction counts stating his indictment was flawed. The judge found Rainey lacked sufficient knowledge he was responding to an official congressional inquiry when he prepared flow-rate estimates the government claims understated the size of the spill in May 2010. His estimate was 5,000 barrels of oil were leaking per day.

"Because it is an essential element of this crime that the defendant knew of this inquiry and investigation, the indictment must allege such knowledge. It does not," Engelhardt stated in his ruling. "Even construing the allegations strongly in the government's favor, it is simply impossible to ascertain from the indictment whether this essential element was presented to and found by the grand jury."

The former BP employee, now president of exploration for BHP Billiton Ltd., still has to face a New Orleans jury in October on one count of lying to investigators about the size of the spill.



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