Gulf of Mexico spill: Weatherford says exonerated by court

Swiss oil industry subcontractor Weatherford said on Monday that a US court had exonerated it of all charges in connection with the devastating oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

"All claims against the company in the multi-district litigation over the cause of the Macondo blowout and oil spill were dismissed," the company said in a statement.

Friday's judgment ends the civil suit against Weatherford.

Presiding US District Court Judge Carl Barbier, was quoted as ruling that "there is no evidence that the Weatherford float collar used...was defective" or that the Geneva-based company contributed in any way to the oil spill.

In June 2011 BP announced it had struck a deal with Weatherford to settle potential claims between them linked to the Deepwater Horizon accident.

Weatherford agreed to pay BP $75 million (56.4 million euros). BP in turn said it would the amount to the $20 billion trust it established to meet "individual, business and government claims, as well as the cost of the Natural Resource Damages."

The leak was triggered by an explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig in the US Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010.

The blast killed 11 workers, caused millions of barrels of oil to spew into the sea and left the British company scrambling to meet the huge compensation costs for the biggest oil spill in US history.