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Posted in BP British Petroleum,Government,Gulf Coast,Maritime Law,Transocean,World Maritime News on December 10, 2010
HOUSTON, TX – Lawyers for BP and Transocean objected to persistent questioning from Coast Guard investigator Capt. Hung Nguyen over blame for the Deepwater Horizon disaster that occurred April 20, 2010.
Attorney Tim Johnson, left, and Jerry Canduccci, a Transocean safety manager, look over a document Thursday at Houston investigation hearings December 9, 2010. PHOTO CREDIT: Eric Kayne: For the Houston Chronicle
Nguyen conducted three days of hearings in Houston where he faced repeated challenges from lawyers for the companies and for individual witnesses.
The hearings that concluded Thursday, December 9, were the latest in the investigation by a joint panel of the Coast Guard and the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.
This week was the sixth in a series of meetings. In Thursday’s meeting Nguyen asked detailed questions about different safety and maintenance regulations, grilling witnesses on what at times appeared to be a laundry list of small details.
In an article from the Houston Chronicle:
On Tuesday he asked a witness from BP, John Sprague, whether the company had adopted recommendations from a study led by former Secretary of State James Baker III following the deadly 2005 explosion at BP’s Texas City refinery.
On Thursday he asked a Transocean safety manager, Jerry Canducci, about intricate topics including the differences between federal guidelines for maintenance of blowout preventers and the company’s procedures.
When Nguyen asked Canducci why Transocean, which owned the Deepwater Horizon, chose to use its own system instead of industry guidelines, Canducci’s lawyer interjected.
“Perhaps I have a misunderstanding of these proceedings,” attorney Tim Johnson said, “but with due respect, evidence comes from this table, not from that table which you are sitting at.”
After the hearings, Nguyen said he didn’t take the hostile tone personally.
“I know they all have roles to play for their clients and are doing a good job to make sure they’re well served,” Nguyen said. “My job is not trying to go after anyone in particular but to make sure we know as much as we can about how to make things safer out there.”
The detailed questioning is aimed at identifying possible gaps in the systems in place, he said.
Sometimes ‘I’m wrong’“When they jump up, sometimes it’s because I’m wrong,” Nguyen said. “But sometimes it’s because I’ve touched on a nerve.”