BP sues Halliburton for Deepwater spill

NEW ORLEANS, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- British energy company BP said it was suing oil contractor Halliburton for costs and damages tied to the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

BP, in a case filed in a U.S. District Court in New Orleans, wants Halliburton to pay "costs and expenses" in addition to "lost profits" and "all other costs" incurred in relation to the gulf oil spill in 2010, the BBC reports.

Halliburton manufactured a cement cap for the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico.

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.

Last month, BP claimed Halliburton destroyed test results regarding cement used to seal the well. Halliburton said the charges are baseless.

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. Cameron International, the designer of the blowout preventer on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, agreed to pay $250 million in a settlement, BP announced last month.