* Anadarko accused of misleading investors over Gulf spill
* Many accusations don't support fraud claims - judge
* Judge had let separate lawsuit go forward against BP
By Jonathan Stempel
July 15 (Reuters) - A federal judge ordered AnadarkoPetroleum Corp, which owned part of the blown out wellat the center of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, to face alawsuit accusing it of defrauding shareholders, butsignificantly narrowed the plaintiffs' case.
U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison in Houston said that whileshareholders had highlighted 28 allegedly misleading statementsattributable to Anadarko, they were entitled to sue over only asingle "isolated" statement concerning the Macondo well, themajority of which was owned by BP Plc.
That statement was made by Anadarko senior vice presidentRobert Daniels on a May 4, 2010, earnings conference call, twoweeks after the blowout, when he said Anadarko had not beeninvolved in the design of or procedures at the well.
"The well design and procedures, operations procedureswere all done before we actually farmed in," he told a caller,according to Ellison's decision on Monday. "We were not involvedin that at all on this well."
Shareholders had accused Anadarko of mismanaging its 25percent stake in the Macondo well, and understating its abilityto manage risk and handle liabilities.
Ellison said one could make a "compelling" inference thatDaniels "simply misspoke" and was not trying to blunt the impactof the spill on Anadarko's share price, but that his directnesscould offer a "cogent and compelling" inference to the contrary.
In rejecting other allegations, Ellison concluded that manyalleged misleading statements were too general or "squishy" toprovide a basis for securities fraud claims against theHouston-based oil and gas exploration company.
Anadarko spokesman John Christiansen said the company was reviewing the decision. It had sought to dismiss the lawsuit.
Gerald Silk, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, did notimmediately respond to a request for comment.
The lead plaintiffs are the Pension Trust Fund for OperatingEngineers in Alameda, California, and the Employees' RetirementSystem of the Government of the Virgin Islands.
In February 2012, Ellison allowed BP shareholders to pursuetheir own civil fraud lawsuit against that company, but limitedthe case to investors who had bought BP's American depositaryreceipts on U.S. exchanges. BP has denied fraud.
The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig andMacondo well blowout killed 11 people.
The case is In re: Anadarko Petroleum Corp Class ActionLitigation, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas, No.12-00900.