Transocean Profits From Oil Disaster

I've posted about Transocean before. They are the company that was drilling the off-shore oil well for BP -- the one that exploded and caused the current oil disaster. They are also one of the corporations that turned their back on their country and set up a "headquarters" in a foreign country (Switzerland) to avoid paying income taxes in the United States. Now they are showing they still haven't found their moral compass.

The company has now announced that they will pay their shareholders a total of $1 billion this year. Evidently, they are feeling pretty sure they won't be needing any of that money to help pay for the damage they have done to the environment of the Gulf and several states bordering the Gulf.

Amazingly, while the Gulf Coast is looking at damages that could climb into billions of dollars, Transocean has actually turned a profit from the oil disaster. They have already received a payout from their insurance company of over $400 million. When the cost of their destroyed oil rig is subtracted from that, it leaves them with a profit of $270 million.

But don't expect them to spend any of that money helping to pay for the damages they caused by their shoddy drilling. They have already asked a court to limit their liability to a paltry $27 million. That's outrageous, considering the damages could go upward of $8 billion (even though BP must share responsibility for the disaster).

I hope the courts and federal government make Transocean pay their share of the damages. They obviously aren't going to step up to the plate and do it on their own.