Transocean Executives To Donate Safety Bonuses

Amid a firestorm of controversy following plans by Transocean RIG, the world's largest provider of offshore drilling services, to award bonuses to executives based on the company's 2010 safety record, the company's senior management team, led by Chief Executive Officer Steven Newman, announced that they are voluntarily donating the safety bonuses that were awarded to them for 2010 to the Deepwater Horizon Memorial Fund. "The executive team made this decision because we believe it is the right thing to do," Newman said. "Nothing is more important to Transocean than our people, and it was never our intent to diminish the effect the Macondo tragedy has had on those who lost loved ones," Newman said in a statement issued by the company. In Transocean's annual report released late last week, the company cited its 2010 safety record as the reason behind granting bonuses to Newman and other high-ranking executives. From page 49 of the annual report: "Notwithstanding the tragic loss of life in the Gulf of Mexico, we achieved an exemplary statistical safety record as measured by our total recordable incident rate (‘‘TRIR'') and total potential severity rate (‘‘TPSR''). As measured by these standards, we recorded the best year in safety performance in our Company's history, which is a reflection on our commitment to achieving an incident free environment, all the time, everywhere." The comments were viewed as insensitive to victims of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the largest oil spill in U.S. history. Transocean owned the Deepwater Horizon rig, which exploded last April, killing 11 workers.