Rig owner says it continues to seek cause of blast in Gulf

Transocean continues to seek cause of rig blast

NEW YORK — The owner of the rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico said Thursday its contract with BP should protect it from lawsuits by fishermen, hotel owners and other businesses damaged by the massive oil spill.

Transocean Ltd. CEO Steven Newman said the company won’t be held liable for “any expense or claim related to pollution” from the well.

The cause of the explosion hasn’t been identified. Newman wouldn’t speculate on a cause during a conference call with investors. For its part, BP blames faulty equipment for the ruptured oil well that’s gushing 210,000 gallons of oil each day into the sea.

Transocean leased the rig, the Deepwater Horizon, to BP. The blowout preventer on the rig failed to seal the well during the explosion on April 20. Transocean said Thursday that BP has asked it to verify the safety of blowout preventers on other rigs.

A BP spokesman said crews are still trying to trigger the preventer from the Deepwater Horizon. They’re also constructing containment domes to plug the oil leaks. The company was preparing to drop one of the domes into the Gulf Thursday to cover one of the leaks.

The preventer is one of the fail-safe mechanisms on a rig. Newman said that the real issue is the “root cause of why a cased and cemented hole would have failed so catastrophically.”

Ricardo H. Rosa, Transocean’s chief financial officer, said the company is insured for more than the $560 million replacement cost of the rig. The company has received $481 million in insurance payments so far.

Transocean said the loss of revenue from the rig incident will begin affecting its earnings in the current quarter that ends in June. On Wednesday, the company estimated lost revenue from the Deepwater Horizon rig at more than $500 million.

The company estimated costs from the incident, including insurance deductibles and legal fees, at $200 million.

Transocean on Wednesday said earnings for the three months ended March 31 fell 28 percent.