The U.S. and governments around the world rely on private companies to inspect and ensure the safety of oil rigs, tankers and commercial ships.
But maintenance records for the ill-fated Deepwater Horizon oil rig that exploded on April 20th, killing 11 workers and leading to the worst oil spill in U.S. history, have exposed weaknesses in the little-known industry that oversees the world’s commercial fleets, The Washington Post reports.
Under the current system, vessels and oil rigs registered in the U.S. have two choices: They can let the Coast Guard perform safety inspections, or they can hire private firms to do the job.
Ships flagged by other nations — such as the Deepwater Horizon, registered in the Marshall Islands — are subject to oversight by foreign governments, which sometimes outsource to the same firms.
Some in the industry believe that having ship owners pay for their own inspections presents a conflict of interest, since the companies could switch firms if they don’t like their inspection results.
“It’s almost like the fox watching the henhouse,” Lee Kincaid, a former shipping captain, told The Post.
The Deepwater Horizon rig had two inspections two months apart that reported radically different findings. The first, conducted in February by a company called the American Bureau of Shipping, or ABS, found that the rig’s cranes “were thoroughly examined by a competent person and that no defects affecting . . . their safe working condition were found.”
But less than two months later, a new inspection reported the cranes were in bad shape.
The April assessment by a firm called ModuSpec USA said various parts of the port-side deck crane were “in bad condition and severely corroded . . . severely corroded . . . cracked due to age . . . in bad condition . . . worn severely . . . . worn and in need of being replaced.”
A lawyer for two former Deepwater Horizon employees said that rig workers were informed when inspectors were coming, and instructed to clean up hydraulic leaks on two cranes before they arrived.
A Transocean spokesman said he “would be surprised if the employees . . . engaged in such questionable conduct,” and denied that the ship was poorly maintained.
ABS declined to comment on the discrepancies between the two inspections.
The company has been sued in previous accidents, including a lawsuit filed by the Spanish government after a tanker certified by ABS sank off the Spanish coast, spilling millions of gallons of oil.
The company denied responsibility, and a federal judge in New York dismissed the case, deciding companies that inspect vessels cannot be held responsible for damage, even if their assessment was reckless.
After ABS filed an annual inspection report for the Deepwater Horizon in Dec. 2009, the Marshall Islands declared that the rig had completed its inspections without deficiencies.
