Transocean Asks to Cap Rig Liability at $26.7 Million (Update4)

Transocean Asks to Cap Rig Liability at $26.7 Million (Update4)

www.businessweek.com

Transocean Ltd., the owner and operator of the oil rig leased to BP Plc which exploded last month and killed 11 men, has asked a U.S. judge to limit its liability to $26.7 million.

(visit the link for the full news article)

I posted this in political madness but decided to put it here in breaking news, hopefully someone will see it..

I can't believe these people are asking for a cap on how much they should pay! If you make a mess, you should clean it up. It's bad enough that the Gulf will most likely be affected for YEARS, but they want to make sure their pockets aren't hit too hard? Complete ********! They're using a 150 year old law that was for shipping companies for their case. I'm sure whatever they paid to a lawyer to find this loophole could have been spent on CLEANING UP THE MESS!

www.businessweek.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Only 27 million? Are they for real? If they get their way, the anger people are already feeling when it comes to special interests is going to give everyone a heart attack simultaneously. Good gawd, what the hell is WRONG with these people and everyone like them?

No soul...

Edit to add: Did the math...that's a little over $2 a gallon of oil that has ALREADY spilled into the ocean. Not sure how this little tidbit even plays into it, but I thought it an interesting thing to ponder.

[edit on 13-5-2010 by nunya13]

Do you know why their asking for this? They are scared to death right now. And very well they should be. They are scared of being sued to the point of going broke. And they should, if they were that lax on their safety program, that is happened.

That may be all they have. If you sue for more than a company has, you get nothing and they have to close their doors permanently. They have to fire all their workers. They would be incompetent if they did not try to survive.

These companies that service the Oil Industry don't have the money the Oil Companies have. It is BP who will be taking care of the real liability.

Nobody even knows what caused it yet. It could be a faulty part from one of Transocean's vendors. It could boil down to one worker with a hangover who screwed up on a part.

The Exxon Valdez for instance was not due to anything Exxon did. Their employee got drunk at work. I know, I met the Captain who replaced him with Exxon. He lived in the Vancouver Washington area and I ran into him by chance. Even so, Exxon got nailed for something one of their employees did that was against the rules.

No company can insure that one of their employees won't screw up badly. In fact you can be sure they will. No company says hey, lets put a faulty part on an oil rig and destroy our company just for fun.

The Jackals will be out in force. Many will end up with money they probably don't even deserve. People who would not have went to work if you forced them will file law suits claiming lost wages, knowing full well they were not going to work anyway. They won't give a damn it will be added to the costs we pay. I'd bet in these massive suits most money paid out is due to fraudulent claims.

Remember the Breast Implants. Turns out they proved they are safe and the junk science used to win the lawsuit was just junk. That does not give that company their 2 billion dollars back and they will never make the people who made the wrongful claim pay the money back.

This won't be over for 30 or 40 years.

[edit on 5/13/2010 by Blaine91555]

Who are they trying to kid? Capped at 27 million? If this gets pushed though, As nunya13 said, this is just going to piss off the people that are already pissed off about it. And if BP or TransOcean doesn't pay for it then who is going to?

They should be responsible for not only the clean up, but for all the repercussions this is going to cause for years to come. All the lost wages from the people who fish those waters. All the beaches that will potentially have to close from the oil. All the lost tourism etc, and not just from U.S. companies.

I know not always the most reliable source, but here is what Wikipedia says are their 2009 assets...

BP

Revenue US $246.1 billion (2009)
Operating income US $26.43 billion (2009)
Net income US $16.58 billion (2009)
Total assets US $236.0 billion (2009)
Total equity US $101.6 billion (2009)

So where do they get off having the balls to ask to have their potential liability capped at 27 million, when their revenue is almost 10,000 times that?




[edit on 13-5-2010 by Survivorman]

reply to post by Survivorman


The numbers you listed are for BP, not Transocean. They're two seperate companies involved in this big mess. Both should be held responsible, and any request for a "cap" on what they should pay should be laughed right out of court.

Originally posted by Estharik
reply to post by Survivorman

 

The numbers you listed are for BP, not Transocean. They're two seperate companies involved in this big mess. Both should be held responsible, and any request for a "cap" on what they should pay should be laughed right out of court.

Agreed, and you are correct. Also I agree with Blaine that, sadly, there will be people that try to take advantage of the situation, but there is no way to avoid that.

They stood to make billions of dollars off the sale of the oil, and should be responsible for the full sum of the problem, regardless of the eventual cost.

And in all truth, we'll never know the actual cost, because as has been stated, the impact of this will be felt for decades.

What is the problem here?

They should and have every right to ask for a cap and to bring all the lawsuits under one trial.

Of course if it is shown that they were significantly negligent then the cap will have no merit and all the lawsuits can bankrupt them.

reply to post by Survivorman


BP, not Transocean. Transocean is just a jobber that provides equipment. The article is only about capping liability on Transocean. BP will be hit for many billions I'm sure.

reply to post by Blaine91555


I think BP is limited to $75mm in liability as from the post exxon valdez spill law that was passed.

reply to post by Desolate Cancer


They're limited to 75m but I heard they were going to try and raise the cap to 10b

talkradionews.com...

www.huffingtonpost.com...

I read an article breaking down transoceans insurance coverage. (ticker symbol: RIG) RIG maybe on the hook for 27M but their insurance providers and re-insurance companies will be paying through the nose. If I can find that article I will post it.

edited for clarity

[edit on 13-5-2010 by jacksmoke]

Originally posted by Estharik
reply to post by Desolate Cancer

 

They're limited to 75m but I heard they were going to try and raise the cap to 10b

talkradionews.com...

www.huffingtonpost.com...

Yea I heard that to, but I doubt they can hold them responsible for the new amount.

In the United States, the federal government is prohibited from passing ex post facto laws by Article I, section 9 of the U.S. Constitution and the states are prohibited from the same by clause 1 of section 10.

ala wikiepedia en.wikipedia.org...

[edit on 13-5-2010 by Desolate Cancer]