BP Sues Cameron International Over Deepwater Horizon Blow-Out Preventer

BP PLC (BP, BP.LN) sued Cameron International Corp. (CAM) over the design and maintenance of the blow-out preventer that failed to contain the gusher of oil and gas that caused last year's Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday with a U.S. court in Louisiana, BP accused Cameron, a Houston-based maker of blow-out preventers and subsea equipment, of poorly designing and maintaining the Deepwater Horizon's blow-out preventer.

The move comes exactly one year after the explosion of Transocean Ltd.'s (RIG) Deepwater Horizon rig, which was drilling for BP in the deep-water Gulf of Mexico. The blast killed 11 and unleashed the worst accidental marine spill in history. BP's lawsuit follows the release of a U.S. government-commissioned study that concluded that the blow-out preventer was not properly designed to contain the gusher that came out of the runaway well.

Cameron, in a statement, said that Wednesday was the deadline for all parties to file claims against each other. "It is not surprising that the companies are filing to protect their indemnity rights," the statement said. Cameron added that in order to protect itself it had filed counterclaims against other parties to the litigation.

-By Angel Gonzalez, Dow Jones Newswires; 713-547-9214; angel.gonzalez@dowjones.com

--Russell Gold contributed to this story.

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