(MCT) — NEW ORLEANS — Energy giant BP, behind schedule and $50 million over budget drilling a deep-water well, stressed cost-cutting over safety, causing the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history, attorneys said Monday as the company’s high-stakes civil trial began.

Lawyers provided a dramatic recounting of the April 20, 2010, explosion and fire 50 miles offshore that killed 11 crew members. Workers were preparing to temporarily cap the Macondo well 4,100-feet underwater when it blew up. The 30-story drilling vessel burned for two days before crumpling into the Gulf of Mexico.