Sunday, February 26, 2012
Judge delays gulf oil-spill trial for settlement talks
Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS
A judge is pushing back the federal trial over the nation’s worst offshore oil disaster by a week, saying Sunday that BP PLC was making some progress in settlement talks with a committee overseeing scores of lawsuits, according to people close to the case.
Two people close to the case told The Associated Press the decision was made Sunday during a conference call between parties in the case and U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the call.
They said the judge told those on the call that BP and the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee — were “making some progress” in their settlement talks. The steering committee is overseeing lawsuits filed by individuals and businesses in the wake of the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig on April 20, 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico. The blast killed 11 workers, and the resulting oil spill soiled miles of coastline.
However, the judge did not mention the status of settlement talks between other parties, nor did he mention any numbers being discussed, according to the people close to the case.
The brief order issued by Barbier on Sunday said only that the delay was granted “for reasons of judicial efficiency and to allow the parties to make further progress in their settlement discussions.”
Among other things, the trial that is now set to begin March 5 is meant to determine the penalties that need to be paid by BP and other companies involved in the oil spill. Billions of dollars are at stake.