A US federal judge said yesterday that energy service giant Halliburton was not liable for some pollution claims from the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010.
US district judge Carl Barbier’s decision is a setback for BP, which is now required to indemnify its contractor for environmental claims which did not come from Halliburton property.
The judge said Halliburton was, however, responsible for punitive damages and civil fines in a decision similar to one taken for rig contractor Transocean last week.
Halliburton performed cement work on the failed Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico.
Transocean owned the Deepwater Horizon rig, which exploded on April 20, 2010, killing 11 men.
BP had previously said that Halliburton should pay all of its billions of pounds of costs for the catastrophe.
The oil firm wanted Halliburton to reimburse it for the cost of cleaning up the oil spill, lost profits from the well and “all other costs and damages”.
A judge at a federal court in New Orleans is expected to begin a trial this month to determine liability for the spill.