Disaster oil rig supervisors face trial in 2014

Two BP rig supervisors charged with manslaughter over the death of 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon will not go on trial until 2014.

US District Judge Stanwood Duval put off the trial of Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine until January 13, 2014.

They are accused of disregarding high-pressure readings that should have been indications of trouble before BP’s Gulf of Mexico well blowout.

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Prosecutors said they expected to provide more than a million pages of information to the defence and defence lawyers said they needed more time to prepare for the trial, which had been scheduled for February 5.

Meanwhile, underwater inspections at the site of the Deepwater Horizon disaster have failed to identify the source of a persistent sheen on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.

Both the US Coast Guard and BP said the recent inspections confirmed that the company’s Macondo well, which blew out in April 2010 and spawned America’s worst offshore oil spill, remained secure and was not leaking oil.