Sept 4 (Reuters) - Transocean Ltd said a U.S. court ruling eliminates its financial risk for the underwater portion of a 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico after the judge found BP Plc grossly negligent.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier ruled that BP was mostly at fault and that two other companies in the case, Transocean and Halliburton, were not as much to blame.

"This is a favorable and welcome ruling for Transocean, its employees, and all offshore drilling contractors," Chief Executive Officer Steven Newman said in statement.

Transocean also said that the remaining financial risk was for the above-surface discharge of pollutants that occurred during the first two days of the spill.

BP said it would appeal the ruling as it believes the standard for proving "gross negligence" was not met.

(Reporting by Subrat Patnaik; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

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