BP Wins Ruling Keeping Prior Accidents Out of Gulf Spill Trial

BP Plc won a court order to keep references to some previous accidents out of the trial to assess blame for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the oil company’s second victory in as many days to bar potentially damaging evidence. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans followed a ruling by U.S. Magistrate Judge Sally Shushan to keep out some emails questioning some of BP’s activities before and after the spill.

Barbier blocked the introduction of evidence related to two accidents involving BP facilities: a 2005 explosion at a Texas City, Texas, refinery that killed 15 people, and a 2006 rupture of a corroded pipeline at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.

In the Texas case, BP pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Water Act and accepted a $50 million fine. BP pleaded guilty to a criminal Clean Water Act violation and was fined $20 million in the Alaska case. BP was also fined a record $87 million by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration for safety problems at the Texas refinery.

Barbier, however, ruled that the prior incidents were “not sufficiently similar” to the April 20, 2010, explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and blowout of the Macondo oil well, which BP mainly owned.

James Roy, a lawyer for some of the plaintiffs, including people and businesses harmed by the accident, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Barbier is scheduled on Feb. 27 to preside over a non-jury trial to assign blame for the Deepwater Horizon accident, which killed 11 people and caused the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.