Obama administration officials today outlined their plans for new regulations designed to boost the reliability of crucial emergency equipment safeguarding offshore wells. Fundamentally, said Deputy Interior Secretary David Hayes, blowout preventers “need to be able to cut whatever is in their way and completely sell off the well.”  More »

A federal magistrate has scheduled a hearing on a former BP engineer’s request for permission to travel freely throughout the U.S. while he awaits a trial on charges he deleted text messages about the oil company’s response to the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  More »

A former BP Plc (BP/) engineer charged with destroying evidence sought for a U.S probe of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill said a “third party” is withholding information that could clear him, according to court filings.  More »

Attorneys for a former BP engineer accused of deleting text messages about the size of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill said Monday in a court filing that a third party holds evidence proving his innocence.  More »

Sitting at a construction yard along Houston’s Ship Channel is a 35-foot-tall, 100-ton hunk of steel that its owners hope never to use.  More »

The judge presiding over the BP Plc litigation tied to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill set a Jan. 14 trial date to determine fault for the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and resulting undersea leak.  More »

The Justice Department wanted the trial to start this summer, but BP asked the judge to wait until after he decides whether to give his final approval to the settlement agreement.  More »

Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Pickens said Kurt Mix of Katy applied for a green card to Canada as recently as March and planned to travel to Australia “never to return.”  More »

A former BP drilling engineer from Katy, Texas, was expected in court today over charges he deleted text messages that indicated the company’s blown-out Gulf of Mexico well was spewing far more crude than BP was telling the public.  More »

Leaders of the two emergency response systems developed after the 2010 Macondo well spill say they’ll share ideas with foreign operators, but will remain focused on the Gulf of Mexico.  More »

A coalition of green groups told the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that federal regulators merely “rubber-stamped” Shell’s plans to drill the wells in the same canyon where the blowout of BP’s Macondo well triggered an explosion that killed 11 rig workers.  More »

The U.S. government said the trial over fault for the 2010 BP Plc (BP/) Gulf of Mexico oil spill shouldn’t be delayed until after a proposed November hearing on a settlement of most private-party claims.  More »