BP plc has filed a federal lawsuit seeking reimbursement from Halliburton Co. for all of the cleanup costs following the Macondo well blowout in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico.

BP also asked the court for compensation from Halliburton to recover lost profits following the blowout and “all other costs and damages.” Halliburton was the cementing contractor for the Macondo well, which blew when the blowout preventer failed in April 2010.

The blowout, which led to an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig, killed 11 men and led to the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

BP, which has estimated cleanup and compensation costs at around $42 billion, already has paid more than $14 billion in spill response and cleanup operations and has set aside billions more for damages claims.

BP’s court filing states that it is seeking “the amount of costs and expenses incurred…to clean up and remediate the oil spill, the lost profits from and/or diminution in value of the Macondo prospect, and all other costs and damages incurred by BP related to the Deepwater Horizon incident and resulting oil spill.”

BP, which was the operator and held a 65% stake in the well, already has settled with most of the parties involved. Houston-based Cameron International Corp., which manufactured the blowout preventer, last month agreed to pay $250 million to BP to settle its claims (see Daily GPI, Dec. 19, 2011). BP’s well partners Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (25%) and a unit of Japan’s Mitsui Ltd. (10%) also settled claims last year (see Daily GPI, Oct. 18, 2011; May 23, 2011).

Like Halliburton, Transocean Ltd., which owned the Deepwater Horizon, also has not resolved any legal claims with BP.

In October BP was cited for seven violations while Transocean and Halliburton each were given four citations by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (see Daily GPI, Oct. 14, 2011). In December federal regulators also slapped BP with two new charges involving five incidents of noncompliance related to the well blowout (see Daily GPI, Dec. 8, 2011). The citations are said to be in preparation for civil penalties likely to be imposed by the federal government.

Jason Stevens, associate director of Morningstar’s energy research, said in a note Tuesday the latest lawsuit against Halliburton “seems similar to an existing suit BP filed in April 2011 but comes a month ahead of a federal trial scheduled to begin in February” (see Daily GPI, April 25, 2011). In last year’s lawsuit BP claimed that Halliburton’s “misconduct” contributed to the Macondo blowout.

“Our read on the lawsuit is that BP is going after both Halliburton and Transocean’s claims of contractual indemnification,” said Stevens. “As is typical of oil services contracts, BP’s contract with Halliburton and Transocean includes language in which the operator (BP) indemnifies the service provider from all liability and potential damages and fines that arise in the course of drilling the well. BP’s suit accuses Halliburton of gross negligence, as it seeks to penetrate Halliburton’s contractual indemnifications.

“We see this development as a continuation of BP’s legal strategy and continue to believe that BP, or the federal government, would face significant challenges establishing gross negligence on part of the services firms, particularly since as operator BP was party to all material decisions on the Deepwater Horizon. However, if BP’s legal strategy succeeds, all bets are off, and either or both service companies could be on the hook for billions.”

©Copyright 2012Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news reportmay not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in anyform, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.