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NEW ORLEANS, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Halliburton Co formally pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court on Thursday tocharges it destroyed evidence in connection with its role in theBP oil disaster that claimed 11 lives and covered the coast linewith an estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil.
U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo accepted the guiltyplea Halliburton legal counsel Marc Mukasey entered, and imposedthe agreed-upon statutory maximum fine of $200,000 and placedthe company on a three-year probation.
Mukasey did not make a statement on the company's behalf.
The plea deal was first announced by the company and theU.S. Department of Justice on July 25.
At the time, the government said Halliburton's guilty pleawas the third by a company in connection with the DeepwaterHorizon spill that reportedly sent oil gushing into the Gulf for87 days at an average of 53,000 barrels per day.
In its plea, Halliburton admitted to the misdemeanor chargeof "intentionally causing damage without authorization to aprotected computer."
The agreement "also serves to deter and prevent futuremisconduct and protects the public from future offense" byHalliburton and others, the government said in a court filing.
In May or June 2010, Halliburton's cementing technologydirector ordered the deletion of computer-generated 3D modelsrelated to the well despite having been directed by a companyexecutive to preserve material related to the well, the judgesaid.
During a trial over the cause of the well explosion, boththe government and BP complained that faulty cement work byHalliburton contributed to the disaster.
BP also complained that Halliburton had destroyed computerevidence that would have shown the company's errors.
