Companies ask judge to postpone until 2012 trial to determine fault in Gulf oil spill

Judge asked to postpone trial for Gulf spill cases

NEW ORLEANS — Some of the companies sued over the massive Gulf oil spill are asking a federal judge to postpone until 2012 a trial designed to assign percentages of fault in the ill-fated Deepwater Horizon drilling project.

A court filing Friday by Halliburton Energy Services, Cameron International and other companies says they need more time to prepare for a trial on the case’s “limitation and liability allocation issues.”

U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier was asked to delay the trial from October 2011 to February 2012. Barbier didn’t immediately rule.

Barbier presides over more than 300 consolidated lawsuits spawned by the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon, which killed 11 workers and triggered the spill.

Rig operator BP PLC and rig owner Transocean Ltd. didn’t immediately join in Friday’s request.