Liability Questions Loom for BP and Ex-Partners

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Who will pay for the oil spill?

For now, BP appears to be the deep-pocketed party footing many of the bills, including setting up a $20 billion fund to compensate victims of the spill. But the legal endgame of sorting out the final tab among the companies that owned the well and worked on the Deepwater Horizon rig has also begun.

Although BP has said time and again that it will clean up the spill and pay all legitimate claims, the company has also put its former rig partners on notice that they will be sharing those costs. And the partners are fighting back.

It is a war of words pitched as much to the ears of investors as to tomorrow’s jurists.

“Other parties besides BP may be responsible for costs and liabilities arising from the oil spill, and we expect those parties to live up to their obligations,” said Tony Hayward, BP’s chief executive, in response to a June 18 statement from one of its partners in the well.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/25/us/25liability.html?th&emc=th