BP Plc and Transocean Ltd. were sued by the family of one of 11 workers missing and feared dead in the wake of an explosion two days ago aboard an offshore drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico. The family of Shane Roshto, a Transocean employee from Mississippi, today sued both companies for negligence in federal court in New Orleans.
The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, which is owned by Transocean and leased by London-based BP, was working about 50 miles off the Louisiana coast when it exploded on April 20.
“Shane Roshto was thrown overboard by the force of the drilling explosion, and his body has not yet been located,’’ Scott Bickford, a lawyer representing the Roshto family, said in the complaint. “The whereabouts of many crew members are still unknown.’’ The Coast Guard said the rig has now sunk.
“The cause of the fire and explosion is unknown at this time,’’ the company said in a statement posted yesterday on its Web site. “An investigation into the cause of the incident and assessment of the damage will be ongoing in the days or weeks to come.’’
115 workers — including 17 injured — were evacuated from the Deepwater Horizon, a 10-year-old semisubmersible rig. The explosion occurred as the crew was completing the concrete casing of a well drilled to a depth of 18,000 feet. Transocean said last year the ultra-deepwater rig drilled the deepest oil and gas well ever, to a depth of more than six miles, while working for BP in the Gulf of Mexico. In September, BP extended its lease on the Deepwater Horizon for three years, agreeing to pay $544 million, or $496,000 per day.
Additional crew members remain missing at this time and their families have spoken out about their fears. Our thoughts go out to the families of Roy Wyatt Kemp, Dewey Revette and the other offshore workers whose whereabouts are unknown at this time.
The case is Roshto v. Transocean Ltd and BP Plc, 2:10-cv- 01156, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana (New Orleans). A second lawsuit has now been filed in Texas and the lawyers who filed that case claim all missing crew are considered dead. We hope that is not the case and that the remaining missing are found soon.
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