BP is set to be tried in what could be the biggest civil case in history over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.
The trial will come after the British oil company was handed a $4.5 billion criminal fine in November last year over the disaster which claimed 11 lives and spilt 4 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, making it the US’s worst ever oil disaster.
BP is being taken to the civil court by the Gulf States that were affected by the spill, and the US Department of Justice. The trial will seek to find the cause of the spill, and allocate responsibility to each of the involved parties – BP, Haliburton, Transocean and Cameron (contractor rig operator and manufacturer of the blowout preventer).
Garret Graves, the chairman of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority of the state of Louisiana, told the BBC: "BP can hire all the smiling faces they can find for their commercials, but in court it's a game-changer.
"First of all, they will have to start telling the truth," he added. "Second, let's just say that's not going to go over so well for BP. Even BP's money can't buy revisionist history."
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