Executives of Firm in Gulf Oil Spill Get ‘Safety’ Bonuses

Executives of Transocean—which owns the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded on April 20, taking 11 lives, including nine Transocean employees, and leading to the worst oil spill in the nation’s history—received bonuses in 2010 for the “best year in safety performance in our Company’s history,” the company said in an April 1 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Transocean said, “Not withstanding 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.” CEO Steve Newman received a total bonus of $374,062.