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The endless legal wrangling has started in earnest, as BP begins lawsuits against it partners in the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The multi-billion-dollar cases are designed to limit the financial liability of BP, and draw out the timeline required for BP to make good on payments.
And not to be outdone, the three other partners - Transocean, Cameron International, and Halliburton - have filed countersuits of their own, ostensibly for the same reasons - to spread the blame.
But that "dodge the blame" tactic will not sit well with the people most affected by the blowout and subsequent spill - they are calling it all just a public-relations gambit.
"On this end, they haven't taken care of us. I don't care who gets the blame," said Melissa Lacoste, working Thursday at her brother's shrimp business in Theriot, La. and voicing a familiar complaint about the slow process for getting compensated for spill-related losses. "I think it's all of them."
And Darryl Malek-Wiley, a field organizer for the Sierra Club, called BP's lawsuits a public relations ploy.
"I think BP has from day one thought more about its public image and PR than about doing what's right," he said.
In the lawsuit, BP is asking $40 billion from Transocean, saying that Transocean is responsible for all the technical and equipment problems leading up the to total failure of the rig. Coincidentally... that figure of $40 billion virtually matches the amount levied against BP for liability claims and cleanup after the blowout.
BP says Cameron, maker of the blowout preventer, produced an "unreasonably dangerous product", and that, combined with the "unstable cement job" from Halliburton - another subject of the suit - bear the blame for the explosion and gusher.
Transocean, which hopes to limit its liability to just $27 million, called BP's lawsuit "desperate" and "unconscionable." It said BP jeopardized the rig through risky cost-saving moves. Cameron declined to comment on the case except to say BP was meeting its legal deadline. Halliburton, for its part, said its work on the Macondo well was performed "under BP's direction and according to their plan."
Transocean shows it plans to hold BP to its obligation stated in the drilling contract for the Deepwater Horizon.
Under the drilling contract for Deepwater Horizon, BP has agreed, among other things, to assume full responsibility for and defend, release and indemnify Transocean from any loss, expense, claim, fine, penalty or liability for pollution or contamination, including control and removal thereof, arising out of or connected with operations under the contract. Transocean expects BP to honor its contractual indemnification obligations under the contract.
In the filing, BP states it wants to hold Halliburton accountable for "improper conduct, errors and omissions, including fraud and concealment."
BP maintains that the Presidential Commission that investigated the Gulf disaster concluded that the cement slurry designed, mixed and pumped by Halliburton failed, that the company didn't provide BP with the results of failed cement tests and that its technicians "missed critical signals that hydrocarbons were flowing into the wellbore." "The record is clear that Halliburton's misconduct contributed to the accident and spill," it said.
In spite of the saber-rattling, legal types are confident that settlements and agreements will be reached.
"They'll sit down and try to resolve it," said Tampa attorney Steve Yerrid, who advised former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist on issues relating to the Gulf oil spill. "These guys are in business together. There will be some division of responsibility, everyone has a percentage."
If an agreement is reached, it would pave the way for hundreds of lawsuits filed by fishermen, businesses, property owners and others to move forward more quickly, said Miami attorney Ervin Gonzalez, who represents plaintiffs in those cases and has a leadership role in the overall litigation.
"It's exactly what we want. We want cases decided. We want fault determined," Gonzalez said. "It gives us an opportunity to see how fault is going to be divvied up among the culprits."
"BP is responsible under the law. But if you look at the true facts of what happened, BP didn't build the rig. BP didn't man the rig. Everybody's blaming BP, but they may be only 30 percent liable," said Daniel Becnel, a Louisiana attorney who represents people in both the lawsuits and the BP claims fund. "They are going to reach a deal. They're not going to shoot each other."
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