After the recent oil spill the US Coast Guard declared that BP PLC and Transocean were responsible for the spill under the oil pollution act. While Transocean still denies there were not responsible for any underwater discharges of oil from the well head, the state of Louisiana is still not convinced. As of Wednesday Louisiana filed a lawsuit against Transocean Ltd. asking the judge to make Transocean broadly liable for the damages of the Gulf spill. Transocean pleaded it only takes responsibility for the oil that leaked from its rig not the oil that gushed from the well. The reason Louisiana wants to file a lawsuit against Transocean is because the liability of Transocean affects Louisiana’s ability to seek recovery of costs and damages related to this oil spill.
This case will be an important factor for the status of Transocean’s company in the future. If the judge rules against the case if could face much harsher financial penalties in the future. In the bigger picture the oil companies are taking a hit from the oil spill and now have to deal with not only the Louisiana lawsuits but many more as well as trying to get their oil in order and sales back on track.
-Nicole Lombardo
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703743504575494253381504666.html?mod=WSJ_Energy_leftHeadlines
This is an interesting post. Do anyone know whether the state of Louisiana plans to file a law suit against BP as well?
ReplyDelete-Kelsey Tomlinson