Transocean oil rig explosion lawyer’
Transocean Employees Now Focus of Oil Spill Investigation
Wednesday, July 28th, 2010
Employees of Transocean, who were on board the Deepwater Horizon-semisubmersible rig, have now become the focus of an investigation into the disaster. Two Transocean employees, chief engineer Stephen Bertone and chief engineer technician Mike Williams have been designated as parties of interest by a hearing panel consisting of the US Coast Guard and the Interior Department. With that, the number of Transocean workers who are likely to face charges in the accident, has increased to five.
If Transocean employees are found to have acted in a manner that contributed to the explosion, then they could face...
Fire on Board Louisiana Flotel Housing BP Cleanup Workers
Sunday, July 25th, 2010
A small fire broke out on a flotel on Baptiste Collette Bayou in Plaquemines Parish in Louisiana. The fire broke out in the mess of the flotel, and at least five workers suffered minor injuries. Most of the injuries were related to smoke inhalation. It's not clear yet whether the workers who were injured, were employees of BP, or the contractors in the oil cleanup efforts.
Meanwhile, fishermen who had been brought in to help with cleanup efforts have been protesting their move into the flotels. According to them, when they signed up for the job, the agreement...
Transocean Employee Says Alarm System Was Partially Disabled before Explosion
Friday, July 23rd, 2010
A fire and natural gas alarm on the Deepwater Horizon could have alerted workers to a natural gas leak, and could have helped them get out of their rooms before the first explosion hit. However at the time of the explosion, the alarm was partially disabled. According to an employee of Transocean, who gave testimony at a hearing in Louisiana this week, the alarm system was partially disabled, because the managers did not want workers being awakened from their sleep at 3 AM because of false alarms.
The employee Michael Williams, said that the alarm system was designed...
Transocean Survey Reveals Workers Were Concerned about Safety
Thursday, July 22nd, 2010
A survey commissioned by Transocean shows that its employees on the Deepwater Horizon were concerned about safety practices on the rig. They were also concerned about reprisals if they reported problems.
The results of the survey have been obtained by the New York Times. The survey was conducted by divisions of Lloyd's Register Group, on behalf of Transocean.
The workers were also concerned about equipment on the rig, some of which had not undergone maintenance in years. Some of the workers voiced their concerns that drilling activities were being preferred over maintenance activities, with the result that many pieces...
Further Damning Testimony: Deepwater Horizon Had History of Maintenance Problems
Wednesday, July 21st, 2010
Every day, maritime lawyers gain more and more evidence that the maintenance record on the Deepwater Horizon semisubmersible was atrocious. According to the Los Angeles Times, in the days and weeks before the rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico killing 11 workers, there were several operational problems. There were at least a couple of partial blackouts and a problem with freezing computers. More appallingly, there was a long backlog of overdue maintenance, actually accumulating into thousands of hours of overdue checks.
Those facts came out at a federal hearing in Louisiana, conducted by the Coast...
The Real Deal on Blowouts
Wednesday, July 21st, 2010
The Maritime Accident Casebook takes blowout data and puts it into some perspective. According to the data, across the globe, there have been 44 significant blowouts since 1955 and before the Deepwater Horizon explosion. These blowouts caused 79 deaths, and major loss of assets.
One event in 1929 caused massive marine pollution. Between 1955 and 2010, the mean period between blowouts was 15 months.
Looking at the Gulf of Mexico specifically, between 1964 and 2001, there were 10 blowouts that resulted in 27 deaths. One of those events, a blowout on the Sedco 135F resulted in a leak of...
BP Official Reported Leak on Blowout Preventer Before Explosion, but No Action Was Taken
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010
The blowout preventer and safety issues with it have been the center of an investigation into the Deepwater Horizon explosion. If it had been functioning properly, this device could have prevented a catastrophic event like this, and saved lives. Just a few days before the Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico on 20 April, company official Robert Sepulvado found an indication of a leak in the blowout preventer. Sepulvado reported the matter to senior BP officials, under the assumption that the matter would then be reported to the Minerals Management Services. However, the company took no action. ...
Is Media, Public Interest in BP Oil Spill waning?
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010
Has the American public tired of all the news coverage about the BP oil spill? According to Mashable, if you go by interest on the Internet, then the oil spill is already yesterday's news.
The Deepwater Horizon explosion and the BP oil spill had generated tremendous buzz on several different social media platforms in the early days. For instance on Twitter, on June 15th, .17% of all tweets had the words “oil spill” in it. Currently, just about .02% to .05% of tweets include these words. The Mashable report came in the beginning of July. It's very likely...
Transocean’s Legal Troubles Go beyond Safety
Monday, July 12th, 2010
Soon after the discovery of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the focus shifted from Transocean, which was the owner of the Deepwater-semisubmersible rig, to BP, the operator of the rig. As a maritime lawyer I'm very familiar with Transocean, having represented clients against the company several times in the past.
The New York Times recently published a report on Transocean's legal troubles elsewhere in the world. The company is not well known in the US except to those in the energy business and to maritime lawyers, but outside the country, it has a...
BP Oil Spill Takes an Emotional Toll on Fishing Communities
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
It’s just over two months since the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico , and it's only now that the real human toll of the explosion and the spill that resulted, are coming to the surface.
The Washington Post is reporting on the emotional toll that the oil spill is taking on fishing communities in Alabama, Louisiana and other Gulf Coast states that are impacted by the spill. Earlier this month, a fishing boat operator in Alabama committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. It shook up maritime lawyers, local fishing communities...
