NEW ORLEANS (Legal Newsline) – The federal government has filed a suit against Shell Offshore Inc. over a May 2016 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The United States of America filed a complaint on Jan. 8 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana against Shell Offshore Inc. citing the Clean Water Act.
According to the complaint, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Louisiana responded to an oil spill that started May 11, 2016. The suit states the defendant spilled more than 1,900 barrels of crude oil into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico from a transfer pipeline at Shell’s Green Canyon Block 248 offshore system. The response efforts ended on May 16, 2016, the suit states.
"Despite the alarms and sustained pressure loss, Shell continued to actively pump oil through the cracked pipeline for at least another seven and a half hours. This was due in substantial part to Shell’s failure to provide adequate training for its control room operators," the suit states.
The plaintiff seeks civil penalties of up to $1,848 per barrel of oil discharged, or if the violation resulted from gross negligence or willful misconduct, up to $5,432 per barrel discharged; injunctive relief; costs; such other and further relief as the court deems just and proper. It is represented by the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. and the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana in New Orleans.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana case number 2:19-cv-00122-MLCF-JCW