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WASHINGTON: British energy giant BP has accused Halliburton of intentionally destroying evidence to conceal its role in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil rig disaster, CNN reported Tuesday.
In documents filed at a federal court in New Orleans, BP said Halliburton had destroyed evidence on cement slurry testing and refused to provide “inexplicably missing” computer modeling results, according to CNN.
“Halliburton's refusal has been unwavering, despite repeated BP discovery requests and a specific order from this Court,” CNN said, quoting from the documents.
“BP has now learned the reason for Halliburton's intransigence - Halliburton destroyed the results of physical slurry testing, and it has, at best, lost the computer modeling outputs that showed no channeling.
“More egregious still, Halliburton intentionally destroyed the evidence related to its non-privileged cement testing, in part because it wanted to eliminate any risk that this evidence would be used against it at trial.”CNN quoted a Halliburton spokeswoman as saying that the company was reviewing the motion but believed the allegations were “without merit.”Neither company could immediately be reached for comment on the report.
An explosion at the Deepwater Horizon rig on April 20, 2010 killed 11 people, and the well gushed oil into the ocean for 87 days, blackening the southern US shoreline and crippling the local tourism and fishing sectors.
By the time the well was capped, 4.9 million barrels (206 million gallons) of oil had spilled out of the runaway well 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.
