BP Disputes Oil Spill Size to Avoid Excessive Federal Fines

Posted in Alabama Maritime News,BP British Petroleum,Deepwater Horizon,Environment,Florida Maritime News,Government,Gulf Coast,Maritime Law,Maritime Lawsuits,Mississippi Maritime News,Texas Maritime News,World Maritime News on December 6, 2010

The Houston maritime lawyer news blog reports that BP realizes that billions of dollars in federal fines are at stake and are challenging the size of the oil spill from The Deepwater Horizon Macondo well that exploded in April 2010 in order to avoid excessive fines for their part in the disaster.

BP is contending that the government’s numbers are “highly unreliable,” and believes that as little as half that amount ultimately flowed into the Gulf.

The HoustonChronicle reports that BP said in a white paper delivered to the presidential commission investigating the Deepwater Horizon disaster. “BP is confident that a complete, comprehensive and rigorous analysis of the flow issue will show that less — and possibly far less — oil was discharged from the Macondo well.”

The government estimates “rely on incomplete or inaccurate information, rest in large part on assumptions that have not been validated and are subject to far greater uncertainties than have been acknowledged,” the white paper said.