Based in Geneva, Switzerland, Transocean Ltd. is the world's second largest offshore drilling contractor. The company manufactures and rents floating drilling rigs and other offshore drilling equipment to gas and oil companies like BP. Most of Transocean's operations are located in the Middle East, the Far East, the U.K., and the Gulf of Mexico.
On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon, a Transocean-owned semisubmersible drilling rig on the Gulf of Mexico, exploded 40 miles south east of the Louisiana coast, killing 11 workers. The rig sank and ruptured an oil well, beginning a leak estimated at 5,000 to as much as 100,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
Although the Deepwater Horizon was under lease by BP at the time of the explosion, 79 of the 126 employees on board were Transocean employees, according to Transocean officials. Several of the rig's key safety devices were also designed by Transocean.
BP blamed the accident on Transocean at a congressional hearing on May 11.
Transocean in the news
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