Ensco - More Criminal Than Paul Watson

**cmjeff** · February 7th, 2009, 07:24 PM

In the Whale Wars thread the general consensus is that Whale War's captain Paul Watson is criminal for operating a ship without having any experienced crew. So what is Ensco's excuse? Ensco got rid of all licensed personnel all together and they are proud of this fact, including it in all of their marketing material!

These people should be jailed in the same cell as Sea Shepard.

**c.captain** · February 8th, 2009, 03:21 AM

cmJeff

I know all about the little gift that ENSCO gets from the USCG by calling the ENSCO7500 a nonselfpropelled barge even though it is propelled by it's thrusters. Every other DP semi in the GoM is self propelled regardless if it is drilling or in transit but the difference is that the 7500 is US flagged but all the others aren't.

My question is if the ENSCO8500 (and her 4 sisters or is it 5?) going to be US flagged or foreign. If is it going to foreign then they are going to have to find a flag state that will issue them a safe manning certificate that does not include a marine crew. If they do, it will have to be a flag state that does not have any other DP rigs under its flag because if the Marshall Islands or Vanuatu give ENSCO what they want, what will TransOcean say? It would be a huge double standard.

If it is going to be US flagged, then we all can petition the Congress on that matter just as with the foreign mariners matter as well. It just will take more letters.

ENSCO might find themselves playing on a different field now than they did in 2000 when they took delivery of the 7500 in Port Arthur. Like you Jeff, I hope that they get their balls crushed! Couldn't happen to a nicer company!

ds · February 8th, 2009, 10:02 AM

Originally Posted by c.captain

what will TransOcean say?

Sorry, that's a dumb question. With captains making $175 each plus expenses travel and such means Transocean pays half a million per ship each year. Throw on C/M salaries and license premiums for DPOs and Marine Crews cost well over a million dollars per vessel. They now have 18 ultra-deepwater vessels.

So what do you thin they are going to say?

**c.captain** · February 8th, 2009, 11:30 AM

ds

I think TransOcean is fine having full marine crews on its DP vessels/rigs...their cummulative salaries only being 4 days of a rigs annual income. Not bad to have so many licenses for only 1.5% of what the rig earns in a year. I would think that it is a selling point with the operator as well.

What I was refering to is that T/O will not like a competitor getting that break in their operating expenses. Not that ENSCO is really any competition to T/O but I still think they would not be pleased to see ENSCO get a special deal as it were.

btw, using the word "dumb" is non necessary, but if you feel bigger for using it then I guess...