Halliburton shrugs off BP's allegations

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HOUSTON, Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Oil services company Halliburton said charges from BP that it destroyed evidence relating to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill are without merit.

A gas explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico last year killed 11 workers and resulted in one of the worst oil spills in history. A U.S. government investigation into the accident concluded BP, Transocean and Halliburton committed a series of regulatory violations at the site.

A report from U.S. regulators determined that the blowout that led to the gas explosion that sunk the Deepwater Horizon platform came from the failure of a cement barrier.

British supermajor BP, in a court filing in Louisiana, claimed Halliburton destroyed the test results, which were regarding cement used to seal the well, to "eliminate any risk that this evidence would be used against it at trial," London's Daily Telegraph newspaper quoted the filing as saying.

A Halliburton spokesman was quoted as saying BP's claims are "without merit and we look forward to contesting their motion in court."

All parties involved at the Deepwater Horizon rig blamed one another during the course of the investigations into the spill. An October report listed seven violations for BP and four each for Transocean and Halliburton.

A trial is set for February in New Orleans.