BP oil spill claims thrown out
A US judge has thrown out racketeering claims by the lead plaintiffs suing BP over last year’s oil spill.
Gulf residents and businesses alleged that BP defrauded regulators in connection with the safety of its drilling operations, its ability to respond to any oil spill, and its response to the actual spill.
US District Judge Carl Barbier dismissed the claims today.
The decision does not affect other damages claims still pending from the same plaintiffs.
Barbier also set aside a lawsuit filed against BP by one of its partners on the well project that resulted in the oil spill.
He stayed Anadarko’s claims because its contract with BP required arbitration of such disputes, rather than litigation.
The Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010 killed 11 people and resulted in 4.9m barrels of oil being discharged, threatening marine life and hundreds of miles of coastline
