NEW ORLEANS - A former BP engineer will spend 10 months on probation for a misdemeanor pollution charge connected to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Donald Vidrine was formally sentenced Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval.

Vidrine had served as a rig supervisor on the Deepwater Horizon offshore rig. Prosecutors said he and one-time co-defendant Robert Kaluza botched a pressure test before the rig's explosion, which sent millions of gallons of oil spewing into the Gulf.

Both had once faced manslaughter charges connected to the deaths of 11 rig workers. But prosecutors backed away from those charges last year, and pursued the misdemeanor Clean Water Act charge instead.

Kaluza chose to go to trial and was acquitted in February. Vidrine pleaded guilty under an agreement that called for probation.