Transocean, the Pointed Finger and Why The Blowout Preventer Probably Failed
President Obama's jihad against BP , really got going when BP started to ask questions about how all four stages of a four-stage blowout preventer could fail. This was when they were accused of "pointing the finger" and have had fingers, not to mention the presidential boot, in their face every moment since then. The blowout preventer was supplied and installed by Transocean , but made by a separate American engineering company. Probably, elsewhere in the world Transocean would have a Briitsh , Dutch or Malayasian company make this item to a common specification. It weighs 140 tons and no-one wants to ship one too far if a competent manufacturer is close at hand. The competence of the manufacturer in this and other cases seems not to be at issue. However, despite having about half of the drilling contracts in the Gulf of Mexico over the last few years, Transocean account for around three quarters of the accidents, and more than one of those has involved the parti...