BP's $40 Billion Lawsuit Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry

Earlier today we noted BP's contrite actions (a 20-minute video, a Wall Street Journal piece with CEO Bob Dudley's byline, a homepage donning of a hairshirt) on the one-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, aka the worst offshore oil spill in US history.

Tonight comes news of how it's really marking the one-year anniversary: by suing rig-owner Transocean for a whopping $40 billion in damages. According to Yahoo, BP's suit — filed in federal court in New Orleans — shifts the blame by accusing Transocean "of causing last year's deadly blowout in the Gulf of Mexico."

BP blames Transocean because "every single safety system and device and well control procedure on the Deepwater Horizon rig failed." Similarly being sued by BP in a separate filing today for causing or contributing to the disaster: Cameron International, with the charge that its "blowout preventer " failed to prevent a blowout.

According to the BBC, BP's legal team is arguing that both companies "should help it pay for tens of billions of dollars in liabilities resulting from the spill, which include clean-up and compensation costs." Today is the deadline for companies to file claims against one another, as well as the last day for parties to sign onto a class action suit against BP and Transocean.

Update: Make that more than $80 billion — and add Halliburton to the list.