Ever since the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, maritime law attorneys have found Transocean and BP battling over liability and damages. A judge has ruled that Transocean, the owner of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, does not have to pay any compensatory damages arising out of the marine pollution that resulted after the disaste...

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A scientific panel is recommending that U.S. offshore drilling companies take a more systematic approach to offshore safety in order to prevent a disaster like the BP oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico last year.  The recommendations were made by the National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. In a new report, the two ag...

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The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement has laid much of the blame for the Gulf of Mexico oil explosion last year on BP. However, Transocean, the owner of the rig, and Halliburton, which did much of the cementing work on the vessel, have not been spared blame either. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation an...

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The former head of the Bureau of Offshore Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement said last week that an increase in “complacency” since the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is threatening the changes in safety regulations and government oversight that resulted from the incident.  Michael Bromwich, speaking at a National Press Club ev...

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Transocean has released its investigative report into the Gulf Of Mexico oil rig explosion last April.  Not surprisingly to maritime lawyers, the company has chosen to place the blame for the explosion on BP. According to the Transocean press release, soon after the Deepwater Horizon explosion last year, the company commissioned an internal inv...

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A final set of federal safety regulations were issued last week for offshore drilling. The rules are a fine-tuning of the emergency measures enacted after the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and subsequent oil spill. The rules deal with how wells are designed and the testing of the cement and barriers that are used to secure them. The go...

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BP has agreed to plead guilty to felony charges, as well as pay $4.5 billion in penalties, in relation to the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion that left 11 workers dead and resulted in a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.The oil giant announced it would plead guilty to 11 felony counts of “misconduct or neglect of ships officers” in ...

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Millions of pounds of unexploded bombs deposited in the Gulf of Mexico after World War II are posing a threat to offshore drilling, Texas oceanographers say. The United States and other governments disposed of munitions and chemical weapons in the oceans until the practice was banned by federal law and international treaties in the 1970s. Now, ...

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A judge has handed plaintiffs, who sustained losses during the BP oil rig explosion last year, a huge victory.  He has ruled that BP can indeed be sued for punitive damages.  According to Judge Carl Barbier plaintiffs are allowed under maritime law to make a claim for punitive damages. BP, Transocean and other defendants have insisted that puni...

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The US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board is conducting an investigation into the BP explosion and oil spill last year. The investigation is being conducted at the request of Congress. The investigation is still on, but according to the New York Times, the board has found that lax federal offshore safety regulatory standards were re...

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A judge’s approval of $7.8 billion class-action lawsuit against BP for damages from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill is being appealed by more than 10,000 individuals and businesses. The company agreed in March to a settlement of an estimated $7.8 billion for most private plaintiff’s claims of economic loss, property damage and injuries stemmi...

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A bill introduced in the US House of Representatives would require rescue boats to be stationed within three nautical miles of offshore oil and gas drilling rigs.  The measure has been sponsored by Louisiana Rep. Jeff Landry, R-New Iberia. According to him, the proposal aims to find a common sense approach to the safety problems facing the offs...

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Two BP workers have been charged in the deaths of 11 people in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine, the highest-ranking BP employees aboard the Deepwater Horizon when the explosion occurred, have been charged with manslaughter, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday. They are accuse...

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The Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday that BP is suspended from entering into new contracts with the United States government for its actions during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  "EPA is taking this action due to BP's lack of business integrity as demonstrated by the company's conduct wi...

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Last Friday, a U.S. judge gave the final approval to BP’s settlement with individuals and businesses who lost money and property as a result of the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that followed the Deepwater Horizon explosion. The settlement addressed only issues of economic and property damage claims and did not separate medical benefits s...

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The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement has been strongly focused on increasing offshore worker safety and preventing accidents like the Gulf of Mexico BP explosion last year.  The agency has had its work cut out for it, as it struggles to deal with years of ineptitude, negligence and inappropriate relationships between...

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BP’s safety record is not exactly a secret to the maritime law lawyers at our firm. However, the company’s less-than-stellar record will not be admitted into court during the Deepwater Horizon trial.  The trial will apportion blame for the oil explosion in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010, which killed 11 workers. But, the court has disallowed ...

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The Justice Department on Thursday announced that a settlement of $1.4 billion had been reached with Transocean for civil and criminal claims concerning the Deepwater Horizon oil rig blowout in 2010. An explosion at the oil rig, owned by driller Transocean, left 11 men dead and millions of gallons of oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico.  Transo...

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A British Petroleum executive is defending a report on the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion in federal court in New Orleans today. Mark Bly was in charge of the company’s investigation into the explosion that killed 11 people and sent millions of gallons of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico. It’s the fourth day of testimony. The civil trial ...

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Globs of oil found on two Louisiana beaches after Hurrican Isaac has been confirmed as coming from the 2010 BP oil spill. Louisiana State University tested the oil, found on Elmer’s Island and Grand Isle, for state wildlife officials. It was found to match the biological fingerprint of the hundreds of millions of gallons of oil that spilled into...

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A coalition of environmental groups from five states filed a lawsuit Monday in federal court claiming the Environmental Protection Agency rules on chemical dispersants used in oil spill cleanups do not adhere to clean water standards. The lawsuit says the EPA has not published regulations on acceptable use of such dispersants in response to oil...

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BP on Saturday completed a subsea mission to determine whether the Deepwater Horizon site is again leaking oil, the U.S. Coast Guard announced today, but the results of the search have yet to be released.  As of Friday, no leak had been found, according to the Coast Guard’s on-scene coordinator, Capt. Duke Walker. Walker said the remotely opera...

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Despite underwater inspections at the site of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion, BP has failed to identify the source of a persistent oil sheen in the Gulf of Mexico, officials announced Tuesday. Recent inspections confirmed that the Macondo well is secure, both BP and the U.S. Coast Guard said. The well, which blew out in 2010 and poured mi...

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The trial over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill is set to begin this morning in New Orleans before a federal judge, with no jury. Attempts to reach a settlement over the weekend failed, but legal experts expect that one will be reached, at least with the U.S. Department of Justice, within the next few months.  Eleven men were ...

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BP is beginning the fifth day of a subsea mission, under U.S. Coast Guard supervision, to search for possible oil leaks from the site of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, according to reports. The oil rig explosion in 2010 killed 11 workers and leaked more than 7 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico over three months before it was finall...

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Oil and gas exploration company Apache Corporation has announced that it managed to prevent a possibly disastrous well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico recently.  According to the company, it identified an “abnormally pressured gas zone” during drilling operations conducted in the shallow water Main Pass 295 in the Gulf Of Mexico. The problem was ...

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