The focus of a trial over BP's massive 2010 oil spill has shifted from the causes of the deadly disaster to the company's struggle to plug its blown-out well while millions of gallons of crude gushed into the Gulf of Mexico for nearly three months.
The trial's second phase opened on Monday with claims that BP could have capped the well much sooner if it hadn't ignored decades of warnings about the risks of a deep-water blowout or withheld crucial information about the size of the spill from federal officials.
BP lawyer Mike Brock denied those allegations and said the company's efforts to stop the flow of oil were guided by an overriding principle: "Don't make it worse."
"It was what the government instructed us to do," Brock told US District Judge Carl Barbier.
The April 20, 2010, blowout triggered an explosion that killed 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and spawned the nation's worst offshore oil spill. BP used a capping stack to seal the well on July 15 after other methods failed.
Brian Barr, a lawyer for residents and businesses who claim they were hurt by the spill, said BP treated the Gulf like its own "private labouratory" as its engineers tried in vain to stop the flow of oil.
BP had a 600-page oil spill response plan that only included one page on "source control", but it simply called for assembling a team of experts to devise a way to stop a blowout, Barr said.
"BP's plan was nothing more than a plan to plan," he said.
The trial's first phase, which lasted eight weeks before ending in April, included testimony from high-ranking company officials and rig workers who survived the explosion. It focused on the complex chain of mistakes and failures that caused the blowout.
The second phase is divided into two segments: The first, scheduled to last four days, centres on BP's efforts to cap the well. The second, expected to last three weeks, is designed to help Barbier determine how much oil spilled into the Gulf.
The government's estimate is about 70 million gallons (265 million litres) more than what BP says spilled. Establishing how much oil leaked into the Gulf will help figure out the penalties the oil company must pay. Billions of dollars are at stake.
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