BP has been a finalist for a national safety award from the MMS for the past two years. A BP spokesman said rigs hired by BP have had better safety records than the industry average for six years running, according to MMS statistics that measure the number of citations per inspection. The rig won an award from the MMS for its 2008 safety record, and on the day of the disaster, BP and Transocean managers were on board to celebrate seven years without a lost-time accident. There were few indications of any trouble with the Deepwater Horizon before the explosion. Transocean ranked first in 20 in a category that gauges its in-house safety and environmental policies. For three years before the merger, Transocean was the leader or near the top in both measures. In 20, the surveys ranked Transocean last among deep-water drillers for 'job quality' and second to last in 'overall satisfaction'. According to the Wall Street Journal online: Transocean was described as having had previous problems with both cement seals (in 2005) and blowout preventers (in 2006), both the suspected cause of the Deepwater Horizon disaster however, the company stated that cementing was a task completed by third party labourers, and that it had 'a strong maintenance program to keep blowout preventers working'. Industry surveys saw this as an effect of its November 2007 merger with rival GlobalSantaFe. However, in the 3 years from 2008 to February 15, 2010, Transocean was the owner of 42% of rigs active in the Gulf, but was responsible for 73% of incidents. Between 20, Transocean was the owner of 30% of oil rigs active in the Gulf, and 33% of the incidents that triggered a Minerals Management Service (MMS) investigation took place on Transocean rigs. However an analysts' review 'painted a more equivocal picture' with Transocean rigs being disproportionately responsible for safety related incidents in the Gulf and industry surveys reporting concerns over falling quality and performance. The rig owner, Transocean, had a 'strong overall' safety record with no major incidents for 7 years.

Once the cementing was complete, it was due to be tested for integrity and a cement plug set to temporarily abandon the well. Production casing was being run and cemented at the time of the accident. The planned well was to be drilled to 18,360 feet (5,600 m) below sea level, and was to be plugged and suspended for subsequent completion as a subsea producer. At the time of the explosion the rig was drilling an exploratory well. The platform commenced drilling in February 2010 at a water depth of approximately 5,000 feet (1,500 m). In March 2008, the mineral rights to drill for oil on the Macondo Prospect were purchased by BP at the Minerals Management Service's lease sale. At the time of the explosion, the Deepwater Horizon was on Mississippi Canyon Block 252, referred to as the Macondo Prospect, in the United States sector of the Gulf of Mexico, about 41 miles (66 km) off the Louisiana coast. It was owned by Transocean, operated under the Marshalese flag of convenience, and was under lease to BP until September 2013. The $560 million platform was built by Hyundai Heavy Industries in South Korea and completed in 2001. Press releases from Transocean state the platform had historically been used for deeper wells, including the deepest underwater gas and oil well. The platform was 396 feet (121 m) long and 256 feet (78 m) wide and could operate in waters up to 8,000 feet (2,400 m) deep, to a maximum drill depth of 30,000 feet (9,100 m).

Class=notpageimage| Location of the Deepwater Horizon on April 20, 2010ĭeepwater Horizon was a floating semi-submersible drilling unit-a fifth-generation, ultra-deepwater, dynamically positioned, column-stabilized drilling rig owned by Transocean and built in South Korea.

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