By Chris Paul
BP accused Halliburton of destroying evidence that could be important in the litigation over responsibility for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (In re: Oil Spill, E.D. La., No. 2:10-md-2179, 12/5/11). BP questioned whether a cement slurry that contractor Halliburton pumped into the Macondo well was strong enough to do its job and asked the court to impose sanctions on Halliburton for discarding cement that Halliburton tested in the weeks following the blowout. BP also asked for an order compelling Halliburton “to deliver to a third party forensic electronic firm reasonably acceptable to BP the computer that Halliburton used to produce proprietary 3D modeling results that it now inexplicably claims are gone.” Halliburton denied the allegations.
