NewsOK member benefits

Judge tosses investors' suit against Transocean

Published: March 20, 2012 Comment on this article

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal judge in New York has dismissed a lawsuit from investors who alleged top executives of Transocean Ltd. misled shareholders about safety problems in the months leading up to a catastrophic oil well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald threw out a class-action suit against Transocean. The Swiss company leased the rig Deepwater Horizon to BP PLC to drill a deep-sea well off the Louisiana coast. The well blew out in April 2010, killing 11 workers, destroying the rig and causing the nation's worst offshore oil disaster.

Buchwald ruled Transocean did not mislead investors about problems with blowout preventers, human errors and equipment problems. Investors alleged company CEO Steven Newman concealed information about safety problems with Transocean's fleet of drilling rigs.