Transocean, owner of the Deepwater Horizon, said Monday it had addressed 90 per cent of recommendations made in a BP audit about systems and equipment in need of upgrade or enhancement on the rig a month before it exploded and sunk in the Gulf of Mexico.
“Overall rig maintenance aboard the Deepwater Horizon met or exceeded regulatory and industry standards and, according to documents and testimony today by BP’s own executives, the rig was found to be fit, strong and prepared for operations in the Gulf,” the company told the FT.
It was responding to the focus of an investigative hearing in Houston that an internal audit by BP found 390 overdue maintenance problems on the Deepwater Horizon rig in September 2009 and that Transocean’s bonus structure, for some staff, was tied, among other things, to “rig uptime”—as opposed to being shut down for maintenance.
