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Who are BP’s “company men” and where are they hiding?

A number of stories about the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster refer to mysterious “company men” responsible for the reckless cost cutting moves leading to the April 20 explosion that killed 11 workers.

But while the media obsesses over CEO Tony Heyward’s yacht excursion and other gaffes, it should be rooting into the story’s trenches to smoke out some of these nameless and faceless culprits who made the actual decisions to override safety at the expense of human lives.

The operator of the rig’s undersea robots told the BBC for a report to air Monday night that he informed unnamed “company men” about a leak in the blowout preventer (BOP) weeks before the explosion.

Yet, instead of shutting down the operation, production didn’t miss a beat as a backup system was used.

In a Coast Guard and MMS hearing last month, Douglas H. Brown, chief mechanic on the platform, spoke of a “skirmish” in an 11:00 a.m. meeting between representatives of Transocean and BP on April 20. The argument centered over the decision by BP’s representative to remove drilling mud and replace it with seawater before temporarily sealing up the well.

Brown said Transocean’s crew leaders disagreed with the procedure but were overruled by the BP rep, who, according to Brown, said, “This is how it’s gonna be.”

The BP rep’s name was not given; he was identified as a “company man.”

The person listed on BP’s documents as its company man was David Vidrine, who was unavailable for comment. He was to have testified but cancelled due to an unknown “medical issue.”

Because BP is circling the wagons and protecting Mr. Vidrine and other company men from saying anything that might incriminate themselves or the company, it remains to be seen if he was acting on his sole authority to replace the drilling mud with seawater or if he was carrying out corporate orders to speed up the process at the expense of a safe operation.

Less than 12 hours after the argument, the rig exploded.

Time will tell exactly who will take legal bullets from the disaster. CEO Heyward was in full bullet dodging mode testifying last week before Congress (“He appeared to have drunk deeply of the wisdom of his lawyers” said the Times of London). In situations like this it is customary for a corporation to circle the wagons and isolate the actual decision-makers from the media to make sure they get their stories straight before having to face prosecutors. Settlements may be offered and taken behind the scenes. Sometimes, however, the feds can exert enough force on those decision-makers to roll over on higher ups in exchange for full or limited immunity if it is proven that they were carrying out company policy to cut corners.

A few years ago, the Coast Guard went after a shipping line because five of its vessels had bypassed the oily water separators and discharged “slops” at sea. Though numerous engineers on all the vessels were aware they were breaking pollution laws, in the end only one person—a chief engineer—was ever sentenced to prison time.

Learn your rights as a seaman by ordering free copy of The Insider's Guide to Winning Your Maritime Injury Case written by Jones Act and maritime accident injury lawyer Brian Beckcom.

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