Victims of Gulf oil disaster remembered

BP filed a lawsuit alleging negligence by the maker of the device that failed to stop the spill and the rig owner. Both filed their own claims.

The disaster began on the night of April 20, 2010, when the Deepwater Horizon rig burst into flames and killed the 11 men.

The rest of the crew evacuated, but two days later the rig toppled into the Gulf and sank to the sea floor.

Over the next 85 days, 206 million gallons of oil – 19 times more than the Exxon Valdez spilled – spewed from the well.

Late yesterday, BP also sued cement contractor Halliburton alleging fraud, negligence and concealing material facts in connection with its work on the rig.

In a statement, Transocean called BP’s lawsuit “desperate”, “specious”, and “unconscionable”.

“The Deepwater Horizon was a world-class drilling rig manned by a top-flight crew that was put in jeopardy by BP, the operator of the Macondo well, thorough a series of cost-saving decisions that increased risk – in some cases, severely,” Transocean said.

Parents, siblings and wives of the workers – whose bodies were never recovered - boarded a helicopter to see the waters where their loved ones perished.

The helicopter took them from New Orleans out to the well site, circled around so that people on both sides of the aircraft could see and then returned to shore, said Arleen Weise, whose son, Adam, was killed on the rig.

The only indication they were at the site was an announcement from the pilot, she said.

“It was just a little emotional, seeing where they were,” Ms Weise said by phone from Houston, where rig owner Transocean was holding an evening memorial service.

Asked what went through her mind when she saw where the rig went down, Ms Weise said: “Just rise up. I wanted them to come up, but it didn’t happen.”

In a statement, Mr Obama paid tribute to those killed in the blast and said that despite significant progress toward mitigating the spill’s worst impacts, “the job isn’t done”.

“We continue to hold BP and other responsible parties fully accountable for the damage they’ve done and the painful losses that they’ve caused,” he said.

BP said in its lawsuit filed in federal court in New Orleans that Cameron International provided a blow-out preventer with a faulty design, alleging that negligence by the manufacturer helped cause the disaster.

The suit seeks damages to help BP pay for the tens of billions of dollars in liabilities it has incurred from the disaster.

BP sued rig owner Transocean for at least €40bn (€27bn) in damages, accusing it of causing last year’s deadly blow-out.

BP said every single safety system and device and well control procedure on the Deepwater Horizon rig failed.

Houston-based Cameron noted in a statement that yesterday was the deadline under the relevant statute for all parties to file claims against each other. It said that it has filed claims of its own to protect itself.

Also yesterday, Transocean filed court papers demanding that judgments be made against BP, Cameron and other companies in its favour.

A presidential commission has concluded that a cascade of technical and managerial failures – including a faulty cement job – caused the disaster.

BP, the oil giant which owns the blown-out well, has paid billions in clean-up costs and to compensate victims.

The company has estimated its total liability at €40.9bn (€28bn), but it might have to pay many billions more, especially if its officials were to be found criminally negligent in still pending investigations and trials.

For now, though, the company has rebounded relatively well, with its stock now just 20% below its pre-spill value.

At a candle-lit ceremony in New Orleans’ Jackson Square shortly after sunrise, environmentalists and religious leaders joined to remember the perished rig workers and call on the nation to take the steps to prevent another environmental catastrophe.

“Our souls are slumbering in moral indifference,” said Rabbi Edward Cohn of the Temple Sinai in New Orleans.

“People quite rightly are asking: How and when, and by whose insistence and stubborn support, will the public’s mind be refocused upon what happened in the Gulf?”

Elsewhere around the world, BP employees were observing a minute of silence.

“We are committed to meet our obligations to those affected by this tragedy and we will continue our work to strengthen safety and risk management across BP,” BP chief executive Bob Dudley said in a message on the company’s website. “But most of all today, we remember 11 fellow workers and we deeply regret the loss of their lives.”