Late Thursday Chief Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Wilkinson of the Eastern District of Louisiana issued his recommendation for dividing the combined $1.24 billion fund created when Halliburton and Transocean settled with BP Deepwater Horizon plaintiffs. Halliburton (a cement contractor on the rig) and Transocean (rig owner) were co-defendants, along with British Petroleum, in litigation involving the April 2010 blowout, fire, explosion and subsequent sinking of the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico.