BP engineer arrested for destroying Gulf leak evidence

NEW ORLEANS – The U.S. Justice Department reached a US$1.4-billion settlement Thursday with Transocean Ltd., the owner of the drilling rig that sank after an explosion killed 11 workers and spawned the massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

By Power Hedge: On April 20, 2010, an explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig located in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. This explosion resulted in the largest accidental marine oil spill in history, releasing an estimated 4.5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico over a period of nearly three months.

I’m sorry it happened. I wish it had never happened…and everybody was still at work A Halliburton Co. worker assigned to monitor a BP Plc well testified at trial that he missed a warning sign of a potential blowout on the Deepwater Horizon rig before the explosion that set off the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

Nearly three years after a deepwater well rupture killed 11 men, sank a rig and spewed 4 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, BP and the other companies involved are facing their day in court. The trial over the worst U.S. offshore oil spill is set to start Monday morning in New Orleans before a federal judge and without a jury. Few expect the case, seen lasting several months, will be decided by the judge.