BP Demands Millions From Partners

While BP has insisted it will pay to clean up the oil spill wreaking havoc on the Gulf of Mexico, documents show that last month the energy giant demanded almost $400 million—or 40 percent of the $1 billion it spent in May—from it partners in the well. It asked for $272 million from Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and $111 million from the Mitsui Oil Exploration Co. of Japan. The amounts follow the joint operating agreement among the three companies, which gives each a share of liability equivalent to its share of ownership (BP owns 65 percent of the well, Anadarko owns 25, and Mitsui owns 10). “We would expect the various parties involved in this to live up to their responsibilities,” said BP spokesman Toby Odone. BP's partners, however, aren’t on the same page: Anadarko says that BP engaged in “gross negligence” and “willful misconduct," and if this was proved in court, Anadarko could pass back liability to BP. Mitsui has not been as aggressive, stating that "because we do not have the expertise required to fully evaluate the possible causes of the accident, we have decided to retain our own outside engineering experts to advise us on the matter.”