The UK Government has shown its support for oil giant BP in its legal dispute over being banned from federal contracts in the US after its involvement in the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
In a filing to a court considering BP’s bid to lift the ban, the Westminster Government said the decision by the Environmental Protection Agency to ban the firm from US government contracts “may have been excessive”.
Explaining the move, a Downing Street official told the Financial Times the firm was “vital to British jobs and pension funds”.
The 2010 blow-out of the Deepwater Horizon well off the Louisiana coast claimed 11 lives and damaged fishing and tourism, as well as marine and wildlife habitats, forcing the company to sign a multi-billion compensation deal in April last year.
As well as costing the firm $42.5 billion, the disaster saw BP hit by the ban on new US government work in November 2012.
“This is a straightforward economic argument,” a Downing Street official told the newspaper. “BP is vital to British jobs and pension funds: Britain’s businesses need certainty to operate and invest.”
