Oil spill

A key federal report into what caused the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history was being readied for release as early as Wednesday amid revelations that BP made critical mistakes on the well and failed to tell its partners and the U.S. government when it realized it.

SALT LAKE CITY — Chevron Corp. has spent $75 million to clean up environmental damage caused by two oil pipeline leaks in 2010, health officials said.

An oil spill in Montana's Yellowstone River surged toward North Dakota on Sunday as outraged residents demanded more government oversight of Exxon Mobil's cleanup.

An estimated 750 to 1,000 barrels, or up to 42,000 gallons, spilled overnight Friday through a damaged pipeline in the riverbed, Exxon spokesman Alan Jeffers said. The break near Billings could be related to the river's high water level, officials said.

More than 100 people were working on the cleanup late Sunday, Jeffers said. But local officials said because of the raging floodwaters, only a handful of crews were laying absorbent pads and booms to trap the oil along short stretches of the river between Billings and Laurel. In some areas, residents said, oil may be flowing underneath the booms and continuing downstream in the murky water.

SALT LAKE CITY -- Salt Lake City residents near the site of a pipe leak that spilled nearly 34,000 of oil say problems still remain one year after the spill.

BRIGHAM CITY -- A fuel spill shut down a few blocks of Brigham City for several hours on Saturday.

MIAMI -- After being hammered for a year over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, BP is going on the offensive with multibillion-dollar lawsuits seeking to shift at least part of the blame to those who owned the ill-fated rig or designed a failed safety device or supplied cement that didn't hold.

Those companies -- Transocean, Cameron International and Halliburton -- each filed lawsuits of their own, and it will now be up to the courts to divvy up fault.

BP, which has rebounded remarkably in the year since the April 20, 2010, disaster, will face an uphill battle in trying to shed the albatross of the Gulf oil spill. The lawsuits filed late Wednesday were likely just opening salvos in what's expected to become lengthy negotiations over assigning responsibility and, more importantly, liability. And experts said the companies in the end will most likely reach deals to divide the responsibility and costs.