NEW ORLEANS — The long-awaited civil trial against BP and its contractors stemming from the 2010 explosion of a drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico that left 11 dead and soiled hundreds of beaches began on Monday, even as settlement talks appeared to intensify between the oil company and federal and state goverments.
Jim Roy, the lead lawyer of private plaintiffs, started the trial with a scathing attack on BP for ignoring multiple signs of problems on the rig and in routine maintenance of safety tests and equipment that led to the Macondo well accident.
“BP made a series of decisions to save time and money that substantially increased risk,” Mr. Roy told a packed courtroom. He said the decisions were typical of “a culture of profit and production over safety.”
In more than an hour of testimony, Mr. Roy noted that BP had decided to employ single-walled drill pipe, which provided inferior barriers to leaks, and it decided that it was not necessary to circulate drilling mud, a method designed to strengthen cement, before installing a seal on the well. He reminded the court that BP opted against conducting a cement bond test, an acoustics test that could have identified the gas that had leached into the piping during the well cementing process.
And finally, he said, using information that has previously been described in numerous government and private reports since the accident, BP ignored the results of a failed pressure test shortly before the well was sealed and blew out.
But Mr. Roy also argued that Transocean, the owner and operator of the Deepwater Horizon rig, had failed to adequately train its employees in emergency operations, and Halliburton was deficient in testing and mixing the cement to seal the well.
The first phase of the trial, which was expected to last three months under Judge Carl J. Barbier of Federal District Court in New Orleans, will determine whether BP or its contractors were “grossly negligent” in causing the accident.
Many of Mr. Roy’s arguments will be repeated in later opening statements by the Justice Department and gulf state attorneys general. BP and its contractors will contest much of the testimony, and they are expected to lay various degrees of blame on each other. The private plaintiffs in the trial, including thousands of businesses and individuals, are suing for damages from all the companies.
At the same time, details of a settlement offer by federal and state officials to the oil company began to emerge over the weekend. The plan, worth a total of $16 billion, would limit the fines paid by BP under the Clean Water Act to $6 billion, a proposal that could help reduce its tax liability, one person briefed on the plan said Sunday, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
BP would also pay $9 billion in penalties to cover damages to natural resources as well as the cost of restoration, that person said. The remaining $1 billion would be set aside in a fund that could be tapped if unanticipated environmental damages related to the spill developed.
No one at BP, the Justice Department or the states involved has commented on any settlement proposal, but several lawyers briefed on the negotiations said that a $16 billion proposal had been made. The affected states are Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, although only Alabama and Louisiana are participating in the trial.
Even if settlement talks slow or stall, the proposal represents a big breakthrough for several reasons, lawyers briefed on the talks said. For one, it represents the first time that Louisiana, which was hardest hit by the spill and would receive the largest payout of any state from a settlement, has participated in an offer.
In addition, the proposal signals the first agreement among states and the federal government on two other crucial issues: a rough plan for how the states would divide any settlement money, and how the settlement would balance fines and penalties against BP.
BP pleaded guilty last year to 14 criminal charges, including manslaughter; admitted negligence in misreading important tests before the blowout; and agreed to pay $4.5 billion in fines and other penalties. The Justice Department has also filed criminal charges against four BP employees.
Last February, a trial to resolve claims against BP by individuals and businesses affected by the spill was delayed by Judge Barbier on the eve of trial because of settlement talks. BP subsequently agreed to create a fund now valued at $8.5 billion to settle those claims. However, numerous individuals and businesses chose not to participate and are also parties to the trial that started Monday.
BP Trial Opens, With Possible Deal in Background
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BP Trial Opens, With Possible Deal in Background
