Tag: Transocean

108 Workers Evacuated Transocean Ltd. spokesman Guy Cantwell told The Associated Press that the rig called Marianas began to take on water near Ghana as it was preparing to move to another location. The rig, currently under contract to Italian oil company Eni, was not drilling at the time. It's a moored semi-submersible rig that lifts its anchors when it prepares to move. It was doing that at the time of the mishap.Transocean evacuated 108 nonessential workers as a precaution. Thirteen remained on board to monitor the situation. Cantwell described the situation as stable and under control, though he could not say for sure whether workers were able to stop water from coming aboard. No one has been injured, he said. An investigation was under way, and Cantwell said it was too soon to speculate on what caused the Marianas to take on water.On Oct. 21, 2009, the Transocean Marianas arrived on location to start drilling an exploration well on the Macondo prospect in the Gulf. Several days later, drilling commenced, but was halted on Nov. 28, 2009, when the Marianas underwent repairs for damage caused by Hurricane Ida. British oil giant BP leased another rig, the Deepwater Horizon, to ...

According to Trannsocean's investigation A series of risky decisions made mostly by BP PLC (BP, BP.LN) led to the Deepwater Horizon oil-spill disaster, according to an internal investigation by Transocean Ltd. determined that a series of risky decisions made mostly by BP PLC led to the Deepwater Horizon oil-spill disaster, contrasting with earlier U.S. government reports that put a large share of the blame on the Switzerland-based offshore-drilling contractor.The decisions in the two weeks leading up to the incident were made because BP worried that it was running out of time, according to the Transocean investigation, released Wednesday.The U.K. oil company was concerned that the high-pressure injections of mud and cement needed to keep the deep-water well sealed would end up fracturing the rock formation that held the oil in the reservoir, endangering future exploitation of the new discovery, the Transocean report said.BP couldnt immediately be reached for comment.Transocean owned the doomed Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, which was drilling BPs Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico. In April 2010, the rig exploded and sank, killing 11 and touching off the worst marine oil spill in U.S. history. The well spewed 4.9 million barrels of crude oil before it was ...

Concluding that it was the result of a succession of interrelated design and abandonment decisions Transocean Ltd. today announced the release of an internal investigation report on the causes of the April 20, 2010, Macondo well incident in the Gulf of Mexico.Following the incident, Transocean commissioned an internal investigation team comprised of experts from relevant technical fields and specialists in accident investigation to gather, review, and analyze the facts and information surrounding the incident to determine its causes.The report concludes that the Macondo incident was the result of a succession of interrelated well design, construction, and temporary abandonment decisions that compromised the integrity of the well and compounded the likelihood of its failure.The decisions, many made by the operator, BP, in the two weeks leading up to the incident, were driven by BP's knowledge that the geological window for safe drilling was becoming increasingly narrow. Specifically, BP was concerned that downhole pressure -- whether exerted by heavy drilling mud used to maintain well control or by pumping cement to seal the well -- would exceed the fracture gradient and result in fluid losses to the formation, thus costing money and jeopardizing future production of oil.The Transocean investigation team traced the ...

Transocean insists the blast did not result from poor upkeep The owner of the oil rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico last year said Wednesday that a Coast Guard report that faults the company for a poor safety culture and other shortcomings that preceded the disaster is full of errors.Transocean said in a 112-page response submitted to the U.S. government that the April 22 draft report should be corrected. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement is expected to release a joint final report with the Coast Guard by late next month.Switzerland-based Transocean insists the blast did not result from poor upkeep, that the blowout preventer was properly maintained and that the general alarm on the rig did not fail to operate automatically. It also said the engines on the rig did not fail to shut down upon detection of gas."When a report of this importance purports to reach conclusions and makes findings so at odds with the evidence, questions must be raised about the fact-finding process and whether an agenda, rather than evidence, served as the report's foundation," Transocean said in its response.A spokeswoman for the joint federal investigation team declined to comment.Multiple government and ...

Transocean has high-level talks with BP Transocean has had high-level talks with BP about last year's Macondo well disaster, for which it believes BP is responsible for the damages, an executive said.Asked about last week's deal between well operator BP and well co-owner Mitsui, Transocean chief financial officer Ricardo Rosa said its relationship as a BP contractor was different, and one should not compare "apples and pears", Reuters reported."This being said, we have had contacts at CEO level with BP," Rosa said in a webcast presentation Tuesday at the UBS Global Oil and Gas Conference in Austin, Texas, describing those talks as "constructive"."We would be foolish to discard any opportunity that may arise, so we keep an open mind," Rosa added.Rosa said no evidence has surfaced to show that Transocean, owner of the drilling rig destroyed in the Macondo well blow-out, was negligent, and his company has high confidence in the indemnity clause BP provided in their contract.Mitsui unit Moex, which owned 10% of the Gulf of Mexico well, had sought to avoid paying its share of the costs by claiming BP was negligent and Moex should be exempted, before agreeing last week to pay $1.1 billion for the clean-up.Transocean ...