Drilling contractor Transocean has launched legal action against BP in an attempt to stop the operator pursuing it for damages from the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
Transocean owned the rig which exploded in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20 last year, killing 11 men and spilling nearly 5million barrels of oil into the sea.
Investigations since the catastrophe have placed most of the blame on BP but have also criticised the role played by Transocean.
In legal papers filed in the US, Transocean called on BP to honour a contract signed between the two firms in which the operator agreed to protect the drilling firm against claims for damages or fines regardless of the cause, including negligence.
Transocean launched the action after BP sued it on the first anniversary of the disaster alleging the contractor was at fault and seeking £25billion of damages.
Today, Transocean said the contract signed with BP contained industry-standard conditions.
Nick Deeming, senior vice president and general counsel at Transocean, added: “BP’s posture in this matter is not only offensive to the thousands of men and women who work together at Transocean but it constitutes a direct threat to the sanctity of contracts, and to the economic underpinnings of an industry that employs hundreds of thousands of people in the United States alone.
“This motion is about more than just two companies. It is about the future of the contract drilling industry at large.
“If BP truly intends to make things right, it must either voluntarily or by the order of the court honour all of its contracts – not just the ones that serve its convenience or financial purposes.”
A BP spokesman said the operator had already paid over £15billion in spill response and claims but Transocean had “not contributed a penny” despite being named as a responsible party by the US Government.
He added: “With its latest litigation filing, Transocean is once again putting its own interests ahead of the people and communities of the Gulf and seeking to obscure its role in the Deepwater Horizon accident.
“Every official investigation has found that Transocean’s actions played a significant causal role in the accident.
“For rigs to operate safely, contractors must know they will be held accountable for their actions in these circumstances.”