Transocean vs. the United States

In 2008 Transocean, one of the world’s largest offshore oil drilling contractors, moved its corporate headquarters from the Cayman Islands to the canton of Zug, Switzerland. The move placed what was already a wildly lucrative company in an even more enviable position. Since their 1999 move from the tax-lax state of Delaware to the Cayman Islands, Transocean’s income tax rate had plummeted from the corporate norm of about 35 percent to fewer than 16 percent abroad. That the oil company had sheltered itself even further was a testament to a company and industry-wide sheltering; a class-wide trend of maximizing profits while minimizing liabilities by finding the most lax worldwide taxation havens. Transocean’s lowered liability in the United States comes in stark contrast to how much of their earnings are made on American soil and provided by American consumers. It also is so startling because of their alleged hand in the Deepwater Horizon explosion of 2010 and their role in rising oil prices.

[...] Regulators with the U.S. Minerals Management Service required the use of a specific type of blowout preventer, yet Transocean deemed that modification not cost-effective. In addition to not heeding regulatory warnings, Deepwater Horizon was cited as having an accident with the same blowout preventer less than a month prior to the accident. The crew of the rig was unconfident in the company’s priorities, with more than half of the employees feeling they could not report potential danger without risking retaliation from their superiors. [...]

[...] Transocean v. the United States In 2008 Transocean, one of the world’s largest offshore oil drilling contractors, moved its corporate headquarters from the Cayman Islands to the canton of Zug, Switzerland. The move placed what was already a wildly lucrative company in an even more enviable position. Since their 1999 move from the tax-lax state of Delaware to the Cayman Islands, Transocean’s income tax rate had plummeted from the corporate norm of about 35 percent to fewer than 16 percent abroad. [...]