"Notwithstanding the tragic loss of life in the Gulf of Mexico, we
achieved an exemplary statistical safety record as measured by our
total recordable incident rate and total potential severity rate... As
measured by these standards, we recorded the best year in safety performance in our
Company's history."
What Transocean Ltd. is trying to say is that the year in which it annihilated the Gulf of Mexico (they owned the Deepwater Horizon rig), turning it into a black smear visible from space, was their best year in safety. Ever. Is anyone else as confused as I am by this? If last year was their best year, what in the hell was their worst year?
It's truly a company that does nothing but look on the bright side of things, isn't it? "Well, Tim, we officially wiped out every thinking organism in a good portion of the world's ocean, of which we as humans depend on for sustenance and water, as well as killed eleven of our employees... but look at the bright side! Fuel costs almost $4 a gallon! Those little peons are practically throwing money at us!"
Delusions aside, what really pisses me off about this isn't that the executives seem to be living in some kind of fantasy land. No, no. If that's all this post was about, even I'd quit reading about now. No, what really pisses me off is that the executives of Transocean Ltd. have declared 2010, the year of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster (you remember - the one where the hole kept throwing up oil for, oh, I don't know, three months), their safest year, and are giving themselves bonuses for it.
