"2 Rig Firm Workers Decline To Appear at Oil Spill Inquiry"

"WASHINGTON — Two employees of Transocean are refusing to appear before a federal panel investigating last year’s Deepwater Horizon blowout and oil spill, federal officials and lawyers for the company and its employees said on Friday.

The inquiry, jointly conducted by the Coast Guard and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, is holding hearings in New Orleans next week on the failure of the subsea blowout preventer to contain the explosive oil and gas that led to the accident, which killed 11 workers and bled nearly five million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

Michael R. Bromwich, the director of the ocean energy bureau, called the refusal of the Transocean employees to appear “unacceptable” and said the company should punish them if they did not testify."

John M. Broder reports for the New York Times April 1, 2011.

SEE ALSO:

"Transocean Cites Safety in Bonuses" (Wall St. Journal)

"Transocean Celebrates 'Best Year in Safety'" (Politico)

"Lawyers for Transocean Employees Complain of Pressure To Testify" (New Orleans Times-Picayune)

"U.S. Pushes Transocean CEO To Have Workers Testify" (Hearst)

"April 20 Deadline for Suing Transocean Puts Oil Spill Claimants in a Quandary" (New Orleans Times-Picayune)