Transocean Ltd sees maintaining its contractual indemnity as the base for any potential settlement with BP Plc over liability for last year’s Macondo well blow-out in the Gulf of Mexico.
“We’re not about to do anything that would compromise that indemnity,” Transocean Chief Executive Steven Newman said on Tuesday at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Energy Conference in Miami, in response to a question about settling with the British oil company.
Newman reiterated that Transocean saw this contractual promise from BP to cover clean-up costs as “iron-clad.”
BP has sued Transocean, owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig that sank after the accident, and Halliburton Co , which did cement work on the well, to share the cost of the spill, while the contractors have launched lawsuits of their own.
These cases are among the hundreds of claims set to go to trial before a federal judge in New Orleans in February.
Last month, Macondo well co-owner Anadarko Petroleum Corp agreed to pay BP $4 billion toward clean-up and victim compensation for the oil spill, which led to speculation about a potential settlement between BP and the contractors. Eleven workers were killed on the rig and thousands of individuals, businesses and property owners have alleged spill-related losses.
