WASHINGTON, May 31 (UPI) -- British energy company BP needs to answer questions regarding allegations it misled government officials in the 2010 oil spill, a U.S. lawmaker said.
A report by The Wall Street Journal states the U.S. Department of Justice is looking into whether BP misled officials regarding the amount of oil leaking from its failed Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.
U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., ranking member of the Natural Resources Committee, accused BP of "hiding the trust size of the spill."
A timeline provided by Markey states BP reported April 24, 2010, two days after the disaster, that around 1,000 barrels of oil per day was leaking from the well. One month later, internal documents provided by BP to Markey confirmed the rate was closer to 60,000 bpd.
"BP must be held to account for their actions and for the amount of oil they spilled into the Gulf (of Mexico)," Markey said in a statement.
In April, former BP engineer Kurt Mix was accused by the FBI of deleting electronic records related to the amount of oil was leaking from the Macondo well under the Deepwater Horizon rig after it exploded in April 2010.
