Halliburton To Plead Guilty To Destroying Evidence In Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill

(RTTNews) - U.S. energy major Halliburton Co. (HAL.F, HAL.TO, HAL) has agreed to plead guilty to destroying evidence in connection with the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf Of Mexico.

The Department of Justice announced that a criminal information charging Halliburton with one count of destruction of evidence was filed on Thursday at a U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Louisiana.

The company said in a press release that under an agreement it reached with the U.S. Department of Justice, a Halliburton subsidiary has agreed to plead guilty to one misdemeanor violation associated with the deletion of records created after the Macondo well incident, to pay the statutory maximum fine of $200,000 and to accept a term of three years probation. The company also agreed to continue its cooperation in the government's ongoing criminal investigation of the company in relation to the accident involving the Macondo well. The plea agreement is subject to court approval.

The accident that led to the largest oil spill in U.S. history occurred on April 20, 2010. A semi-submersible rig in the Deepwater Horizon platform operated by Swiss-incorporated contractor Transocean Inc (RIG) was drilling for BP Plc (BP.L) in Mississippi Canyon Block 252, when it exploded and sank into the seabed hours later. Eleven rig workers died in the explosions and fire. As a result of uncontrolled blowout, over 85 days, 206 million gallons of oil is estimated to have spewed from the well before it was capped.

Following the blowout, there was an allegation that the oil spill was caused by the failure of a cement wall built around the well by BP's contractor, Halliburton. Halliburton conducted its own review of various technical aspects of the well's design and construction.

Halliburton says it had recommended to BP the use of 21 centralizers in the Macondo well, but BP opted to use only six centralizers.

Halliburton set up an internal working group to examine whether the number of centralizers used on the final production casing could have contributed to the blowout.

Two computer simulations of the Macondo well final cementing job run by Senior Program Manager for the Cement Product Line indicated that there was little difference between using six and 21 centralizers. "Program Manager was directed to, and did, destroy these results," the U.S. Department of Justice said in a press release on Thursday.

In agreeing to plead guilty, Halliburton has accepted criminal responsibility for destroying the aforementioned evidence.

The guilty plea agreement and criminal charge announced on Thursday are part of the ongoing criminal investigation by the Deepwater Horizon Task Force into matters related to the April 2010 Gulf oil spill. The New Orleans-based Deepwater Horizon Task Force is supervised by Acting Assistant Attorney-General Mythili Raman and led by its director John D. Buretta.

Halliburton says the Department of Justice has agreed that it will not pursue further criminal prosecution of the company or its subsidiaries for any conduct relating to or arising out of the Macondo well incident.

Halliburton is the third major Corporate company to plead guilty in the tragedy, the others being Oil giant BP and rig operator Transocean.

Halliburton had already made a voluntary contribution of $55 million to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. BP put aside $7.8 billion when it agreed last year to pay compensation for the oil spill.