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By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press
      


NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Flaws in Transocean Ltd.'s emergency training
and equipment and a poor safety culture contributed to the deadly
Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion that led to the Gulf oil
spill, according to a Coast Guard report released Friday.


      The report centered on Transocean's role in the disaster because
it owned the rig and was primarily responsible for ensuring its
safety, the Coast Guard said. BP PLC owned the well that blew out.


      The Coast Guard report also concluded that decisions made by
workers aboard the rig "may have affected the explosions or their
impact," such as failing to follow procedures for notifying other
crew members about the emergency after the blast.
     


 The report doesn't explore the root causes of the well blowout,
which triggered the explosions that killed 11 workers and sent
millions of gallons of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico. But the
Coast Guard said numerous actions by Transocean and the rig's crew
affected their ability to prevent or limit the disaster.
      


Electrical equipment that may have ignited the explosion was
poorly maintained, while gas alarms and automatic shutdown systems
were bypassed so that they did not alert the crew, the report said.
And rig workers didn't receive adequate training on how and when to
disconnect the rig from the well to avoid an explosion, it said.
     


 "These deficiencies indicate that Transocean's failure to have
an effective safety management system, and instill a culture that
emphasizes and ensures safety, contributed to this disaster," the
report said.

      A Transocean spokesman didn't immediately comment on the report.

      The report also found lax oversight by the rig's flag state, the
Republic of the Marshall Islands, a Pacific nation where Transocean
registered the Deepwater Horizon in 2005. It said the Coast Guard
should ramp up its inspections of such foreign-flagged drilling
rigs.


      The Coast Guard said the Marshall Islands failed to make sure
that the vessel was properly inspected and that its electrical
equipment, crew training, emergency preparedness and other
operations were in good working order.

      The Marshall Islands does not inspect rigs itself and instead
farms out the work to qualified third parties. In the case of the
Deepwater Horizon, inspections were done by the American Bureau of
Shipping and Det Norske Veritas. The Marshall Islands "effectively
abdicated its vessel inspection responsibilities," the report
said.
    


  The Marshall Islands maritime administrator blasted the Coast
Guard report, saying it relied "on conjecture and speculation,
which should have no place in a responsible casualty investigation
report."

      A panel of officials from the Coast Guard and Bureau of Ocean
Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement held a series of seven
hearings for its probe of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The
bureau is expected to release its own preliminary report on the
explosion before the two agencies issue a joint final report later
this year.

      Previously, a presidential commission pointed to a cascade of
technical and managerial failures, including a faulty cement job
and a poor safety culture in the industry. BP's own internal
investigation spread the blame for the disaster among all the
partners on the rig. 


A panel looking into why a key safety device,
the blowout preventer, failed to do its job pointed to a faulty
design, among other problems. The Chemical Safety Board, the
Justice Department and other entities have yet to release their own
findings.

      The courts will also be assigning blame and liability, and
officials of the oil companies could even be held criminally
negligent.

      The Coast Guard's report said electrical equipment on board may
not have been able to prevent flammable gases from igniting. The
report said some of the electrical equipment was in bad condition
and severely corroded.

      Gas detectors on board the rig were not set to automatically
activate an emergency shutdown system to stop the engines and halt
the flow of outside air into engine rooms, and the bridge crew had
not been trained on when they should activate the systems. If the
shutdown system had been activated as soon as gas was detected, the
explosions in the engine room area could have been delayed or
avoided, the report said.

      The Deepwater Horizon had an onboard system for fighting fires,
but it wouldn't work without electrical power. When the power went
out on board, crews realized it would be futile to try to fight the
fire, the report said.

      The report also faulted the culture on board for problems
fighting the fire, noting that drills were held at the same time on
the same day each week, and that drill personnel were sometimes
allowed to skip the exercises.

      Records indicate that "the routine, repetitive nature of the
fire drills may have led to a degree of complacency among the crew
members," the report said.


      Despite recommendations that the blowout preventer -- the device
that failed to prevent the oil spill -- be inspected every three to
five years, Transocean did not arrange to have the Deepwater
Horizon's blowout preventer recertified for more than 10 years, the
report said.


      "Transocean failed to ensure that its onboard management team
and crew had sufficient training and knowledge to take full
responsibility for the safety of the vessel," the report said.


      Associated Press writer Cain Burdeau contributed to this report.

Gallery

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Panel: Gulf oil spill could happen again

Flaws in Transocean Ltd.'s emergency training
and equipment and a poor safety culture contributed to the deadly
Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion that led to the Gulf oil
spill, according to a Coast Guard report released Friday.

Report: Transocean contributed to Gulf disaster

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