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By Kristen Hays
NEW ORLEANS, Feb 25 (Reuters) - BP executives more focusedon cost-cutting and oil production than safety should be heldresponsible for the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf ofMexico in 2010, the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history, alawyer told a courtroom on Monday as a long-awaited legalshowdown began in New Orleans.
Jim Roy, speaking for plaintiffs suing well owner BP Plc, drilling rig owner Transocean Ltd, cementservices provider Halliburton Co and others, said BPexecutives at the highest level felt pressure to push output tothe limit.
"Production over protection. Profits over safety," Roy said.
Roy was the first of many lawyers scheduled to speak duringa day of opening statements in the non-jury trial before U.S.District Judge Carl Barbier. The first phase of the trialfocuses on how much each company is to blame for the disasterand the degree of negligence.
Most observers expect the case to be settled before it goesto a verdict, although talks over the weekend failed to reach anaccord.
"BP is in a very tight bind. I never thought that theyintended to try this case and really cannot afford to do sobecause the exposure is too potentially catastrophic," saidBlaine LeCesne, a professor at Loyola University College of Lawin New Orleans.
Lined up against the defendants are the U.S. JusticeDepartment, several Gulf Coast states, and plaintiffsrepresented by Roy that did not take part in an $8.5 billionsettlement that BP struck last year.
The stakes are enormous, with potential liabilitiesstretching into the tens of billions of dollars if Barbierdetermines that BP or the others were grossly negligent.
Simple negligence involves mistakes. Gross negligenceinvolves reckless or willful disregard for human andenvironmental safety and is a difficult standard to prove,experts say.
Gross negligence opens the door to punitive damages againstBP, Transocean and Halliburton - above potentially billions infines under the Clean Water Act.
The April 2010 explosion at the Macondo well about 50 milessouth of Louisiana killed 11 men, sank Transocean's DeepwaterHorizon drilling rig and unleashed more than 4 million barrelsof crude into the Gulf of Mexico.
Oil came ashore from Texas to Florida, threateninglivelihoods and state economies dependent on seafood andtourism.
BP has spent or committed $37 billion on cleanup,restoration, payouts, settlements and fines. That includes arecord $4.5 billion in penalties, and a guilty plea to 14criminal counts to resolve criminal charges from the JusticeDepartment and civil claims from the U.S. Securities andExchange Commission.
The company has sold $38 billion in assets to help cover itsspill-related costs, including its older, smaller Gulf of Mexicooperations.
The second phase of the trial, slated for September, willfocus on the flow rate of the oil that spewed from the well. Thethird phase in 2014 will consider damages.
