Deepwater rig owner admits 'exemplary' safety boast was 'insensitive'

Transocean, owner of the rig being use by BP during last year's Gulf of Mexico disaster, today acknowledged that its description on Friday of 2010 as its "best year in safety" might be insensitive.

The rig blowout killed 11 workers and caused a huge oil spill.

In a filing with U.S. financial regulators on Friday, Transocean had said it achieved an "exemplary" safety record last year as measured by its total recordable incident rate and total potential severity rate.

The announcement created outrage around the world over the weekend, despite Transocean's claim that the Deepwater Horizon disaster was all BP's fault.

Last night, Ihab Toma, Transocean's executive vice president of global business, admitted some wording in that statement "may have been insensitive" given the Deepwater Horizon accident.

"Nothing in the proxy [statement] was intended to minimize this tragedy or diminish the impact it has had on those who lost loved ones. Everyone at Transocean continues to mourn the loss of these friends and colleagues." Toma said in a statement.

Earlier on Monday, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar had disputed Transocean's claim that its safety record last year justified executives' safety bonuses. He told reporters on a conference call that Transocean was "at some fault" for causing millions of barrels of crude oil to leak from the underwater well.

On Friday, the head of the Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management had chastised Transocean Chief Executive Steven Newman for not doing more to encourage two employees to attend a hearing this week for the government's probe of the oil spill.

The hearing is examining why the rig's blowout preventer failed to stop what eventually became the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

Newman, who became CEO of the rig contractor less than two months before the April 20 blow-out, received $6.4 million in 2010, including $850,000 in base pay and a $5.4 million long-term incentive award, according to the filing on Friday.