Following uproar, Transocean execs will donate bonuses to families of Deepwater Horizon casualties

The news that Transocean—the company that owned the Deepwater Horizon rig that touched off the 2010 BP oil spill after it exploded and claimed the lives of 11 workers—was rewarding executives with generous safety bonuses hasn’t exactly been a public-relations triumph. And now, in an effort to contain some of the damage to its public image, Transocean has announced plans for executives to donate those bonuses to a fund for the families of the workers killed in last April’s disaster.

Following uproar, Transocean execs will donate bonuses to families of Deepwater Horizon casualties
“The executive team made this decision because we believe it is the right thing to do,” Transocean CEO Steven Newman said in a statement released Tuesday night. “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. We offer our most sincere apologies and we regret the impact this matter has had on the entire Transocean family.”

In a recent regulatory filing, the company lauded its “exemplary” safety record in 2010 as “the best year in safety performance in our company’s history,” despite the “tragic loss of life” that occurred in the platform explosion.

The news sparked outrage, indignation and mockery far and wide. In an editorial yesterday, the Times Picayune likened the decision to “the owners of the Hindenburg claiming they had an ‘exemplary’ safety record—except for the dramatic explosion of the blimp over New Jersey in 1937,” and the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart blasted the company as “crazy” for apparently equating the loss of human life with “Bob cutting his hand on a bolt” before also making a Hindenburg analogy.

In a statement to CNN, the company acknowledged that it had not exerted enough care in crafting its statement, but did not intend to downplay the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe.

“We acknowledge that some of the wording in our 2010 proxy statement may have been insensitive in light of the incident that claimed the lives of eleven exceptional men last year and we deeply regret any pain that it may have caused,” Transocean told CNN. “Nothing in the proxy was intended to minimize this tragedy or diminish the impact it has had on those who lost loved ones.”