Three Transocean Employees Refuse to Testify in Probe of Gulf Oil Rig Disaster

Three employees of Transocean, owner and operator of the Deepwater Horizon, have refused to cooperate with a federal investigation into last year’s Gulf of Mexico oil disaster.

The U.S. Coast Guard and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement are together conducting hearings in New Orleans on why the oil rig’s blowout preventer failed to stop the April 20, 2010, accident that killed 11 workers—nine of them Transocean employees— and spewed nearly five million barrels of oil into the ocean.

Michael Bromwich, director of the ocean energy bureau, said the employees’ refusal to testify was “unacceptable” and that Transocean should punish them for not cooperating.'

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