Transocean claims indemnity under BP contract

Transocean, the company that owned the drilling rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico last year, argued in court documents filed Tuesday that its contract with BP shields it from having to pay for the largest offshore spill in the nation’s history. In court documents filed in federal court in New Orleans, Transocean says it was operating under a contract with BP that contained “standard industry reciprocal indemnity language” and that BP promised to exempt Transocean from “fines and penalties.” A trial designed to assign shares of fault for the April 20, 2010, disaster—which killed 11 workers and led to a spill of more than 200 million gallons of oil—is scheduled to start Feb. 27. The trial also is to determine whether Transocean can limit what it pays claimants under maritime law. In a statement, Transocean says BP has broken its contractual promises by suing Transocean. BP countered with its own statement saying Transocean’s court filing showed it was “putting its own interests ahead of the people and communities of the Gulf and seeking to obscure its role in the Deepwater Horizon accident.” Federal regulators says BP, Transocean and Halliburton—the three companies working on digging the well—are at fault for alleged safety and environmental violations. A report issued in March by the panel of government investigators says BP bears ultimate responsibility for the disaster because it ignored crucial warnings and made bad decisions during the cementing of the well. The report, however, also says Transocean and Halliburton share some of the blame.