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| The owner of this rig admits no wrongdoing |
Most of the employees on the rig worked for Transocean, 79 out of a total of 126 and nine of the workers killed were Transocean employees. But a report in Business Week points out that while BP has spent $17 billion so far on the clean up, Transocean has adamantly refused to contribute one dime. “Within 12 hours of receiving medical attention…Transocean employees were transported to a hotel in New Orleans, where they were questioned by company lawyers seeking to exonerate the drilling contractor..” plaintiff attorneys for surviving workers say.
The July 4th issue of Bloomberg Business Week has an in depth story on the ongoing war that is being fought over liability for the disaster. It reveals the secretive, dishonest and seedy world of global capitalism.* The various companies are squabbling with each other over responsibility for the catastrophe and in February the first of what will no doubt be many court battles will begin in New Orleans.
There are some global companies, a real den of thieves, whose names we are familiar with, BP, Halliburton, Transocean, as well as some other minor players. But Transocean is the only corporation that is proudly denying any wrongdoing and refusing to pay any of the costs. The whole affair reveals the truly global nature of these corporations and their allegiance only to profit.
Transocean is the world’s largest offshore oil driller with 27% of the world’s floating oil-rig market, “Were never out of our depth” is the company’s motto. While the anonymous folks that own these corporations push American values like nationalism and patriotism to us working slobs; when it comes to them, the world is home. “Even though most of its executives and senior staff work in Houston”, Business Week writes, the company is incorporated “in Switzerland for tax purposes.” Marx explained that workers have no country, something we have to come to understand if we are to win this class war, but capital is truly international, capital doesn’t like borders.
Transocean is attempting to use an 1851 law, the US Limitation of Liability Act to avoid any responsibility for the spill or at least put a cap on it. The same law was used by the owners of the Titanic BW explains, and although they weren’t completely successful, they capped their liability at $95,000 for all the survivors and the estates of the 1500 that drowned.
What is interesting is to read the details of these squabbles and the shamelessness of the combatants, Transocean in particular. To refer to the $270 million that the company made in insurance payments on the rig’s value as “profit”, is inaccurate says a company spokesperson. It is an “accounting gain”. Technically he’s correct I suppose but they love to deceive with language. I recall Enron and MCI’s financial chicanery being describes as “accounting errors”. Not only that, it’s downright “unfair” to bring the Titanic in to the Deepwater Horizon case, the spokesperson says. On top of all this, Transocean announced that it would be paying $1 billion in dividends to its shareholders.
But get this: despite being the owner and operator of the rig that led to 11 deaths and the worst oil spill in the history of humanity, Transocean, as it announced it would pay $1 billion in dividends to shareholders, stated in its annual report that, 2010 was, “the best year in safety performance in our company’s history.” and gave safety bonuses to its executives. “You almost have to admire their chutzpah----almost” says a lawyer for the plaintiffs.
The Business Week article goes in to considerable detail about the events leading up to the explosion and the climate that followed. BP was public enemy number one and we were reminded that the real name of the company was British Petroleum, not Beyond Petroleum as the company’s media efforts tried to convince us. Nationalism and protectionism are always around the corner ready to leap out after events like these. Folks may recall that Obama came out fighting, “BP is responsible for this leak, BP will be paying the bill.” he told the American public as protests and calls for boycotting BP emerged at its gas stations around the country. Interior secretary Kenneth Salazar talked of the need to “keep the boot on the neck of British Petroleum” the pressure was on to find a culprit in the face of the worst environmental disaster in US history and they learned from the imbecile Bush’s disastrous trip to the Gulf Coast after Katrina.
But the BW article is clearly a strong assault on Transocean. The magazine goes in to great detail about the company’s past safety record which is far from stellar. In 2009 there was a similar incident on a Transocean rig in the North Sea that the US Presidential spill commission described as “eerily similar” to the Deepwater Horizon spill four months later. There was a climate of fear when it came to reporting safety issues says a former manager. In one incident, a rig suffered three fires within a three-month period and the third one “poured smoke in to the bridge”. The manager’s boss refused to report the third incident to his superiors so the manager reported it. He was informed a week later that the investigation was over; “Everyone was cleared. It was just smoke” he was told. He was transferred to a rig off the coast of Nigeria, a “big demotion” he tells BW.
The Presidential commission discovered that Transocean failed to inform its employees on the Deepwater Horizon of changes it made in safety guidelines in response to the near fatal accident on the North Sea rig. Had it done so, the commission concluded, events on the Deepwater Horizon, “may have unfolded very differently.” These disasters as we have stated many times on this blog are not natural disasters; they are market driven.
As I read this unfavorable article about the role of Transocean during and after the explosion, I am wondering what the motive is. After all, I am sure BP and Halliburton and other companies got to their employees before they said too much just like Transocean did. BP’s record on safety is dismal. From 1995 to 2005 it lead the US refinery industry with 25% of the nation’s fatalities, ten times more than Exxon. It was charged with criminal violations of federal environmental laws after the Texas City Texas refinery accident that killed 15 workers.
But BP and Halliburton have very powerful connections. Transocean is a small business by Wall Street standards. Also, with the catastrophe coming not so long after Katrina and in the aftermath of an economic disaster, the mood in the country was still potentially explosive. The faith in the system had been shattered and hatred for the rich, the corporations and their politicians was widespread and still is. Transocean’s blatant refusal to admit any wrongdoing or contribute any money to clean up the mess while at the same time publicly announcing safety bonuses to its executives and a billion dollars in dividends is not good PR. Despite the failure of any serious mass movement developing in response to the crisis and the ongoing bailout by the taxpayer, the capitalist class recognizes the mood out there and the potential for social explosions.
The other issue to consider is that if forced by the likes of BP and Halliburton to pay any significant amount towards the clean up, Transocean may have to declare bankruptcy. In the murky world of international capital this might be what the bottom feeders want. The name changes but the money stays in the same hand pretty much.
If you get a chance I recommend reading the report and I have added a link to it below or you can go out and get the magazine. It is always worthwhile keeping an eye on the dirty dealings of our enemies.
* Success is Never Having to Say You’re Sorry BW 7-4-11
More on the Gulf catastrophe
http://weknowwhatsup.blogspot.com/2010/08/deepwater-horizon-disaster-will-have.html
http://weknowwhatsup.blogspot.com/2010/11/witht-ban-on-drilling-in-gulf-big.html
lhttp://weknowwhatsup.blogspot.com/2010/09/lessons-from-exxon-valdez-prove-that.html
http://weknowwhatsup.blogspot.com/2010/07/below-giant-bluefin-tuna-once-they-get.html
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