BP and Transocean are at odds over who should get possession of a key piece of evidence in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill investigation once additional testing is complete.
Transocean, responsible for maintaining the blowout preventer that failed to stop last year’s oil spill, wants the device back.
But BP told a federal magistrate judge in a letter Friday the blowout preventer shouldn’t be given to one of the defendants in numerous lawsuits filed over the disaster. It says the government should safeguard it at least until the end of a trial set for February related to the lawsuits.
The government has said the blowout preventer failed because of a design flaw and a bent piece of pipe. BP, unsatisfied with the analysis, got court approval for additional testing.
