So far the U.S. government has brought criminal charges only against one BP employee
Transocean Ltd. (RIG, RIGN.VX) expects more indictments to issue from the U.S. Department of Justice’s criminal investigation on the Deepwater Horizon incident, targeting Transocean, Halliburton Co. (HAL) and BP PLC (BP, BP.LN) employees, a Transocean executive said Tuesday.
So far the U.S. government has brought criminal charges only against one BP employee.
“We fully expect that ourselves and BP and Halliburton and other employees will be indicted,” said Greg Cauthen, Transocean’s interim Chief Financial Officer, during a broadcast presentation to investors. Cauthen said he didn’t know what charges the U.S. government would bring, but “it’s something we take very seriously.” Transocean is well prepared to defend itself in court, although it’s also open to a fair settlement, Cauthen said.
Transocean owned the Deepwater Horizon rig, which exploded and sank in April 2010 while working for BP in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico.
Cauthen also said that Transocean, which has seen its profits squeezed by downtime related to equipment overhauls mandated by regulation that followed the Deepwater Horizon blast, is working to have that downtime accounted for in its contracts with oil producers.
“We are negotiating improved contractual terms,” Cauthen said, including tighter liability protections and downtime provisions for the maintenance of blowout preventers. The company’s case is helped by rising demand for deepwater and ultra-deepwater rigs, Cauthen added.
Source: Angel Gonzalez, Dow Jones Newswires
