Report: Transocean to donate "safety" bonuses

With a subsequent series of calamitous world events, the devastating Gulf of Mexico oil spill of last April managed to slip out of the headlines relatively quickly.

Recently, however, the oil spill made a roaring comeback in the public consciousness, mostly for the wrong reasons. Last week it was announced that Transocean Ltd., which was given at least one-third of the blame for the spill, gave its top executives massive bonuses for the "best year in safety performance in our company's history."

After a series of public condemnations from Republican and Democratic lawmakers, as well as certain comedic television personalities, Transocean executives announced they will be donating the bonuses to a memorial fund for the victims of the explosion of its oil rig - which BP had leased - that killed 11 people and spilled 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, reports the Politico website.

"The executive team made this decision because we believe it is the right thing to do," CEO Steven Newman said in a statement. "Nothing is more important to Transocean than our people, and it was never our intent to diminish the effect the Macondo tragedy has had on those who lost loved ones. We offer our most sincere apologies and we regret the impact this matter has had on the entire Transocean family."

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The bonuses were detailed in a filing Friday to the Securities and Exchange Commission, first reported by the Wall Street Journal on Saturday.

The bonuses are going into the Deepwater Horizon Memorial Fund Transocean established for the families of the 11 workers.