BP Sues Maker of Blowout Preventer

BP today marked the one-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon explosion by pinning the blame squarely on someone else—namely the maker of the rig's blowout preventer. The company sued Cameron International in federal court in New Orleans, claiming that the "flawed design" of the blowout preventer was the main culprit in the blast, reports Reuters.

Cameron mostly shrugged in response, noting that today was the deadline for companies involved in the disaster to cover themselves legally, reports AP. "It is not surprising that the companies are filing to protect their indemnity rights (except in the case of BP) and whatever claims they believe they have," Cameron said. "Additionally, in order to protect ourselves, we, too, have filed crossclaims and counterclaims, including our indemnity claims, against other parties to the litigation." (More British Petroleum stories.)