GULF OIL SPILL - Update, Halliburton Destroyed Evidence

This as backdrop to BP's 'we are great' TV add campaign.  Can you hear the echo of shredders going full bore?

"Halliburton Admits Destroying Evidence in 'Grim Sorting Out' of Gulf Spill Blame" PBS Newshour 7/26/2013

Excerpt

HARI SREENIVASAN (Newshour):  Soon after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, three companies began a blame game over whose mistakes were most responsible for the environmental disaster.  That battle, which continues to play out in court, involved BP, Transocean, and Halliburton.

BP leased the Deepwater Horizon from Transocean.  It also owned much of the Macondo well that erupted and spilled millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf.  Halliburton was contracted to design and build the well.

One of the key arguments has been about whether Halliburton's work on the well may have led to the blowout that killed 11 people.  Yesterday, Halliburton pleaded guilty to destroying evidence in 2010 about test simulations it did with cement in the wake of the accident.

Paul Barrett has been following this story for Bloomberg Businessweek and fills us in.