HOUSTON, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- A safety culture assessment at Transocean Ltd., owner of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, found many workers frustrated, The New York Times reports.
The Swiss company arranged for the assessment by Lloyd's Register a month before the April 20 explosion that killed 11 workers on the drilling platform, sending it to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico and setting off the biggest oil spill ever in U.S. waters.
Lloyd's was to cover four Transocean rigs in the gulf and the company's North American headquarters in Houston.
The confidential report said many employees were concerned that workers and managers on drilling rigs did not have enough experience to know what problems were likely to come up and how to deal with them, the Times reported Wednesday. They also cited company bureaucracy.
Many employees said company investigations of accidents and close calls focused on assigning responsibility, not on changing the culture to prevent new ones.
There are 139 Transocean rigs drilling for oil around the world, including 14 in the Gulf of Mexico, the Times said. The Deepwater Horizon rig had been leased by British oil giant BP. UPI
