Transocean Under Fire Over US Oil Spill

It is still unclear what caused the explosion on the rig operated by BP and owned by Transocean, but many are beginning to point their finger at the Zug-based company’s blowout preventer (BOP) for failing to work properly.

“BP is responsible for this leak — BP will be paying the bill,” President Barack Obama told reporters on Sunday in Venice, a Gulf Coast community serving as a staging area for the response.

BP says it is ready to pay all legitimate claims tied to the oil spill caused by the accident. But the head of BP Group Tony Hayward has said it could have been prevented if Transocean's BOP had done its job and prevented the explosion. A BOP is a large valve at the top of a well, and activating it will stop the flow of oil.

Indeed, it was not only BP officials who were summoned by US lawmakers on Friday to testify at a hearing examining the causes of the massive oil spill, but representatives of Transocean and Halliburton as well. Halliburton provided a variety of services on the rig and was involved in cementing on the well to stabilize its walls.

"[The BOP] is the ultimate fail-safe mechanism," Hayward told CNN. "And for whatever reason - and we don't understand that yet, but we clearly will as a consequence of both our investigation and federal investigations - it failed to operate.

"And that is the key issue here, the failure of the Transocean BOP," Hayward said, describing the valve as "an integral part of the drilling rig".

A Transocean spokesman on Monday declined to respond to Hayward's comments, citing ongoing investigations.

“We will await all the facts before drawing conclusions,” Guy Cantwell told swissinfo.ch.

First port of call

But Joseph Joy, a Louisiana lawyer specializing in off-shore oil rig accidents, felt the BP chief was right, as “Transocean were out with their men, devices and safety processes”.

Offshore blow-outs are not very common, Joy told swissinfo.ch, but the disaster pointed towards the BOP and why it didn’t activate.

“Was it defective? Were there problems with the design or operation, or was it improperly maintained?”

Bill Miller, a British government inspector in charge of health and safety on North Sea oil rigs, said Transocean would be the first “port of call” for any liability enquiry.

“In the UK we would hold the safety case duty holder responsible, and in this case it would be Transocean,” he said, adding that US law might be different.

Miller said he had been surprised by the rig explosion, as “this is a fairly new installation with as modern equipment as you can get”.

Flood of lawsuits

Meanwhile, the legal dimensions of the oil spill continue to spread. At least one of the victims' families has filed a lawsuit against BP and Transocean, accusing BP specifically of negligence. And over 20 federal lawsuits have been lodged by local businesspeople and private individuals from Louisiana, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi against BP, Transocean, Halliburton and Cameron – which manufactured the BOP.

Daniel Becnel, a Louisiana-based trial lawyer who filed one of the suits, told AFP that the plaintiffs "have a whistle blower on an adjoining rig saying 85 per cent of the drilling pipe was not properly inspected" by the US Minerals Management Service.

"We knew that BP and Transocean, the owner of the Deepwater Horizon, weren't telling the truth," said Becnel, a veteran industrial accident litigator.

The companies named as defendants declined comment on the lawsuits, although BP said in a message on its website on Monday that it would pay "all necessary and appropriate clean-up costs" and “legitimate” claims.

Halliburton told Associated Press it was cooperating with the investigation, adding that it was "premature and irresponsible to speculate" on the possible cause of the explosion.

Cantwell said Transocean was “intensely focused on providing support to crew and family members" as well as supporting BP in cleanup efforts and helping with the enquiries.