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BP: Halliburton destroyed oil rig evidence

NEW ORLEANS, Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Halliburton destroyed crucial information about the deadly Deepwater Horizon oil rig blast that caused a world-record spill in the Gulf of Mexico, BP alleges.

BP, the British oil producer that leased the rig from Transocean Ltd. of Switzerland, said Halliburton "intentionally destroyed" evidence on cement testing to avoid it being used in litigation, CNN reported. BP said Halliburton, based in Houston, has failed to respond to requests for discovery and to a court order.

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The explosion last year on the Deepwater Horizon rig left 11 oil rig workers dead and set off a world-record offshore spill of millions of barrels of crude oil. BP has filed an action in U.S. District Court in New Orleans seeking sanctions against Halliburton, whose Halliburton Energy Services was a contractor.

BP alleges in its filing that Halliburton destroyed testing evidence and violated court orders by not producing "inexplicably missing" computer modeling results.

"Halliburton has steadfastly refused to provide these critical testing and modeling results in discovery," BP alleges. "Halliburton's refusal has been unwavering, despite repeated BP discovery requests and a specific order from this court.

"BP has now learned the reason for Halliburton's intransigence -- Halliburton destroyed the results of physical slurry testing, and it has, at best, lost the computer modeling outputs that showed no channeling. More egregious still, Halliburton intentionally destroyed the evidence related to its non-privileged cement testing, in part because it wanted to eliminate any risk that this evidence would be used against it at trial."

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A Halliburton spokeswoman said BP's accusations are groundless.

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