UNTIMELY

Transocean Execs Get Fat Bonuses

“Safety record” perks overlook Gulf oil spill.

This seems a little backward: Despite the explosion of Transocean’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig that killed 11 people and leaked 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the company gave its most senior managers two-thirds of their total possible safety bonus on Friday. In its regulatory filing with the SEC, the company mentioned “the tragic loss of life” in the Gulf but said it still had an “exemplary” safety records because it had either met or exceeded its internal safety measures. Earlier this year, a presidential commission declared the explosion was the result of a number of time- and money-saving decisions made by Transocean, BP, and Halliburton Inc. But this didn’t stop Transocean from lauding the efforts of its executives for “significantly improving the company’s safety record.”