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“We firmly believe we were not grossly negligent,” BP’s (LSE:BP.) General Counsel maintained as the UK oil giant is set to defend itself on Monday, 25 February, in a trial that will determine if there was gross negligence on its part that caused the Deepwater Horizon incident.
In a statement released late yesterday, the firm’s counsel, Rupert Bondy said they are confident they can defend their case in court, hinting that the firm will never agree to excessive demands for damages arising out of the incident.
Monday’s trial is the first of the two trials and will focus on whether or not BP and other parties were grossly negligent, proving the same will affect how much BP will pay for damages arising out of the oil spill.
“Gross negligence is a very high bar that BP believes cannot be met in this case,” Mr. Bondy stated, re-affirming the company’s stand that the incident that caused the biggest oil spill in US history was an “accident, resulting from multiple causes and involving multiple parties.”
A second trial is scheduled in September this year to determine how much oil was spilled and will be used to calculate the amount of damage BP will pay under the Clean Water Act.
The said US law stipulates a fine of between US$1,100 and US$4,300 for every barrel of oil spilled, depending on whether the pollution it caused was proven to be because of gross negligence as well as seven other legal factors that will determine how much penalty BP will incur.
According to BP, the US Department of Justice “indicated” it agreed with BP’s position that the 810,000 barrels of oil recovered from the Macondo reservoir and did not enter the Gulf of Mexico waters should not be counted in calculating BP’s fine.
Bloomberg News reported the presiding Judge, Hon. Carl Barbier, ruled the recovered oil “never came into contact with any ambient seawater and was not released into the environment”, thereby reducing BP’s potential liability by US$3.4 billion.
Mr. Bondy believed, the courts will not rule to impose the maximum statutory fine, based on court practice as well as in consideration of the efforts of the company since the tragic event happened in April 2010.
“We are prepared to go to trial and present our case to Judge Barbier,” Bondy said in closing.
In London, BP shares advanced 0.5% to 448.85 pence at 10:00 GMT.
