BP's $8.7 billion attempt to put the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill behind it continues to come undone. In the latest unraveling of the oil giant's proposed settlement with thousands of Gulf residents and businesses harmed by the offshore disaster, key rig contractor Halliburton has filed court papers (here and here) slamming the deal as unfair and lacking transparency, and urging a judge to reject it. Halliburton's plea to U.S. District Court Judge Carl Barbier to ditch the settlement is largely based on its findings from an expert in damages -- Marc Vellrath, the CEO of the Finance Scholars Group -- who attacked the sprawling settlement as failing to distinguish from the wide variety of the claims against BP. "An upscale seafood restaurant in New Orleans, Louisiana, does not suffer the effects of an oil spill in the same way as a golf course in Mobile, Alabama," according to the legal brief filed this week by Halliburton. "Likewise, an oyster fisherman operating off the coast of Louisiana has a claim that is very different from a hotel on the coast of Florida." Halliburton's objections come just days after stinging briefs in the case by the U.S. Justice Department and the state of Alabama tore ...
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