BP tells court it did not dither in response to U.S. Gulf spill

NEW ORLEANS - BP Plc unnecessarily delayed the capping of its Macondo well and worsened the extent of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill through dithering and indecision, according to allegations by plaintiffs' lawyers on Tuesday that the British company denied. In the second phase of a trial in New Orleans over billions of dollars in potential fines, lawyers for the plaintiffs - the U.S. government, Gulf states and former contractors Transocean and Halliburton Co - also sought to show BP's estimates of the size of the leak were unsubstantiated and caused delays by complicating efforts to cap the well. James Dupre, who was in charge of BP's well control efforts at the time, said the company consulted with experts across the oil industry on how to best cap the well. The second phase of the trial in U.S. District Court in New Orleans, expected to last a month, covers how much oil spewed from the well and whether efforts to stop it were adequate.

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