Deepwater Hearings – How much does the left hand know about the right hand? gCaptain Total Views: 35 May 27, 2010 At the conclusion of the first day of the Kenner hearings to include testimony from both BP and Transocean personnel, it’s clear one question needs to be asked… Does one hand know what the other is doing? In the opinion of gCaptain four organizations share primary blame for the events of April 20th; Halliburton, Transocean, BP and the US Government. (Halliburton has not testified yet so we will concentrate this article on the other three) And each is larger than the next which makes it easy to understand the complexity of the problem but difficult to understand who exactly is responsible for each failure. The complexity starts on the vessel where the division of responsibilities between the Captain, with extensive marine knowledge, and OIM, with extensive drilling knowledge, are described in the organizational chart as: Underway Mode: Master Is In Charge OIM. Drilling Mode: OIM Is In Charge But is it not the fact that a Dynamically Positioned MODU is always underway? Some would argue that it’s even making way through the water considering the thrusters are pushing the vessel through the current. In yesterday’s testimony Transocean VP of Health Safety and the Environment, Captain Adrian Rose, was asked specific questions about the blowout procedures aboard the Horizon to which he responded; “Transocean owns 134 vessels, I can’t possibly have detailed information on each of them.” When asked specifically “Who is ultimately responsible for safety management?”, Rose answered that the CEO is ultimately responsible but TOI follows a process of line management. The International Safety Management Code states: To ensure the safe operation of each ship and to provide a link between the Company and those on board, every Company, as appropriate, should designate a person or persons ashore having direct access to the highest level of management. The responsibility a