The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Halliburton, BP plc, Transocean, Cameron International and Canadian Solar

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Sep 07, 2011, 09:30 ET

CHICAGO, Sept. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Halliburton Co. (NYSE: HAL), BP plc (NYSE: BP), Transocean Ltd (NYSE: RIG), Cameron International Corp. (NYSE: CAM) and Canadian Solar Inc. (Nasdaq: CSIQ).

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Here are highlights from Tuesday's Analyst Blog:

GoM Oil Spill: Halliburton Sues BP

Major oilfield services provider Halliburton Co. (NYSE: HAL) has filed a suit in the Texas state court against British energy giant BP plc (NYSE: BP) accusing it of negligent misrepresentation, business disparagement and defamation related to last year's Deepwater Horizon rig disaster. The Texas-based company, which provided cementing job for the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM), has blamed BP of concealing key information that led to the biggest environmental catastrophe in U.S. history.

As a reminder, on April 20, 2010, offshore driller Transocean Ltd's (NYSE: RIG) ultra-deepwater Horizon drilling platform, contracted to BP, sank following an explosion while operating in the U.S. GoM off the coast of Louisiana.

The incident killed 11 workers and spewed more than 200 million gallons of crude in what is touted as the country's worst oil spill ever. Subsequently, a moratorium was imposed on offshore drilling at water depths of more than 500 feet in the region, which was lifted on October 12, 2010.

The lawsuit filed by Halliburton alleges that BP – the owner of the Macondo well with a 65% interest – provided wrong information about the actual location of oil and gas producing zones in the well prior to the cementing services performed by Halliburton.

Earlier in April this year, BP filed suits in the New Orleans federal court against two of its contractors – Transocean and Cameron International Corp. (NYSE: CAM) – seeking billions of dollars in damages and other costs. The London-based group has accused Transocean and Cameron of negligence.

On the other hand, Transocean has pinpointed the root causes of the explosion as being tied to the BP's 'poor' design of the well. BP overlooked the risks associated with the Macondo well and did not communicate the danger, alleges Transocean. The drilling contractor's report goes on to say that BP, together with Halliburton, was to be blamed for the 'poor cement job' that allowed the oil/gas to burst through the reservoir and reach the rig, causing the explosion.

Now, with Halliburton seeking to deflect the accusation to its employer, the legal battle over who is to blame for the accident gets more intense. According to reports, a federal trial is scheduled for next year to assess the degree of fault and the quantum of liability that lies with the companies.

Canadian Solar Modules in Germany

One of the world's largest solar companies, Canadian Solar Inc. (Nasdaq: CSIQ) has supplied its high quality solar modules for Germany's largest solar power plant which is built by GP JOULE GmbH ("GP JOULE").

Built on a 152 hectare surface in the Southern Brandenburg region of Eastern Germany, the open-space solar power plant has a specified output of 70 megawatt (MW). GP JOULE has installed approximately 306,000 solar modules on four fields located in a former lignite mining strip in the East German city of Meuro near Senftenberg.

The plant is expected to power 17,500 households with green energy. The project is financed by HSH Nordbank, Unlimited Energy and Luxcara.

With four locations in Northern and Southern Germany as well as international offices in North America, France and Italy, GP JOULE is a leading international engineering, procurement and construction and project development company. Besides supporting its customers throughout all phases of a project, it looks after completed plants once they are operational. GP JOULE has also established a knowledge pool that brings together the know-how from all their specialist departments and allows it to create comprehensive energy solutions.

Canadian Solar and GP JOULE have worked together since 2009. Recently, they announced a 97MW supply agreement under which Canadian Solar will supply its high performance solar modules to GP Joule, with all deliveries to occur before December 31, 2011.

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