The Obama administration put a temporary stop to new federal contracts with British oil company BP on Wednesday, citing the company's "lack of business integrity" and criminal proceedings stemming from the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010.
The action by the Environmental Protection Administration won't affect current contracts, but prevents BP and its affiliates from new government contracts and grants "until the company can provide sufficient evidence to EPA demonstrating that it meets federal business standards," the agency said.
In London, BP said it had no immediate comment but expected to make a statement later Wednesday.
It was not immediately clear what new or pending contracts the suspension might affect. In the past, BP has been a major supplier of energy to the U.S. military, and has also provided fuel products and drilling services for other U.S. agencies such as the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
The suspension will not affect any existing agreements between BP and the federal government.
2 BP supervisors, ex-executive in court on spill charges
The news comes as two BP rig supervisors and a former BP executive were scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday on criminal charges stemming from the explosion and the company's response to the oil spill.
BP well site leaders Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine were indicted this month on manslaughter charges in the death of the 11 rig workers. The federal indictment accuses them of disregarding abnormal high-pressure readings that should have been glaring indications of trouble just before the blowout of BP's Macondo well.
Former BP executive David Rainey was charged separately with concealing information from Congress about the amount of oil that was leaking from the well.
Their defence attorneys have vowed to fight the charges.
BP to plead guilty, pay $4.5B
On Tuesday, a BP lawyer entered a not-guilty plea for the company as it was arraigned on related criminal charges. The plea in Federal Court was a procedural move paving the way for the company to plead guilty at a later date.
David Rainey was indicted Nov. 15 on counts of obstruction of Congress and false statements. (Cheryl Gerber/File/Associated Press) BP announced earlier this month that it will plead guilty to manslaughter, obstruction of Congress and other charges, and pay a record $4.5 billion US in penalties to resolve a Justice Department probe of the disaster.
Attorneys for BP and the Justice Department are scheduled to meet Dec. 11 with a federal judge to discuss a date for pleading guilty.
The Deepwater Horizon oil rig, owned by Transocean Ltd. but operated on behalf of BP, was drilling in the Gulf of Mexico about 80 kilometres southeast of the Louisiana coast the night of April 20, 2010, when it was rocked by an explosion. The rig burned for about 36 hours before sinking to the Gulf bottom about 1.6 kilometers below the surface.
The bodies of 11 workers were never recovered.
The blast led to the nation's worst offshore oil disaster as millions of litres of crude oil spewed from BP's well.
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