Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal News Blogs -> Legal Blog Watch

Legal News

: Legal Blog Watch

Oil Spill Expose of the Day: Foreign Registration of Rigs

By Eric Lipman

Via Cruise Law News comes a link to a lengthy Los Angeles Times article exploring the practice of oil companies registering their drilling rigs in exotic foreign lands to avoid, to the greatest extent possible, oversight by U.S. authorities. The Deepwater Horizon was registered in the Marshall Islands, and some experts quoted in the article assert that the foreign registration resulted in a dual command structure -- both a drilling expert and a sea captain having some command authority -- that likely contributed to the extent of the disaster because the captain felt he needed to consult with the drilling manager prior to taking action. As I write, oil company execs are being grilled by Congress about the "cookie-cutter" disaster response plans they submitted, which apparently include provisions to protect walruses that haven't lived in the Gulf for the past 3 million years, give or take, and name as a wildlife expert a guy who died five years ago. President Obama will be holding a primetime briefing this evening to talk about the spill and response, including his observations from his tour of the region over the past two days.

Full post as published by Legal Blog Watch on June 15, 2010 (boomark / email).