(upstreamonline) -- A federal judge on Monday denied BP access to 21 emails and other documents sent among White House and other US officials related to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, citing the government's need to keep them confidential.
US Magistrate Judge Sally Shushan in New Orleans said the federal interest in preserving secrecy, together with the public interest in ensuring an effective response to the next disaster, outweighed BP's need for the documents to defend itself in litigation by the government over the spill.
"This conclusion is not altered by the role of the US in the response to the spill as well as its role as a plaintiff against BP," Shushan added. The judge said she reviewed the documents in private before ruling.
Scott Dean, a BP spokesman, declined to comment.
The 20 April 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon at the Macondo well site killed 11 people and triggered several hundred lawsuits against BP and its drilling partners, including rig owner Transocean and cementing-service provider Halliburton.
MRC