US prosecutors have launched fresh criminal charges against a former BP executive and an engineer in connection with the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
David Rainey, who was vice-president of exploration for BP in the Gulf of Mexico and engineer Kurt Mix are accused of obstructing investigations into the catastrophe.
Last month, US District Judge Kurt Engelhardt in New Orleans dismissed a count of obstruction of Congress against Rainey in part because it lacked sufficient detail, which the revised charge is intended to address.
A second count accuses Rainey of lying to investigators in an April 2011 interview about how he calculated the flow rate fro the ruptured Macondo well.
The other revised charge still accuses Mix of two obstruction counts for allegedly deleting records related to the oil flow rate, but reduces the number of voice mails he allegedly deleted.
Lawyers for Rainey and Mix, who both pleaded not guilty last year, did not respond to requests for comment.
Rainey’s trial is scheduled for October 15 and Mix’s for December 2, court records show.
Two former well site leaders, Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine, were also criminally charged and have pleaded not guilty.
The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon resulted in 11 deaths and caused the worst offshore oil spill in US history.
BP agreed to plead guilty to obstruction of Congress as part of a £2.9billion criminal settlement with the US department of justice last November.