Idle time had fallen to 24% of total rig days, from 34% in 2007.
The rig sank two days later, setting off an oil leak that has since released around 85, 000 barrels of oil into the Gulf.
The rig sank two days later, leaving up to 19, 000 barrels (798, 000 gallons) of oil pouring into the Gulf, according to federal estimates.
Sources close to the investigation tell Forbes that Transocean engineers had last checked the blowout preventer 10 days before the rig explosion, and that BP believes the device suffered a leak of hydraulic pressure, preventing it from being able to shut the well.
The drillers lost control and the well blew out, igniting the rig in a fireball that burned for days and killed two workers.
Although the world's largest oil rig finally stopped sinking yesterday--four days after three explosions left it lurching more than 30 degrees--the accident could cost Brazil's Petrobras , which owns the 40-story platform, half a billion dollars.
This means if it took 15 days to drill before that now it takes 9 days, and instead of one rig working 90% of the time and punching 22 holes in a year, now 37 wells can be made.
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The case has striking similarities to the BP Deepwater Horizon rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico that took place just days after the West Virgina disaster.
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Eleven people were killed, including nine Transocean employees, in the April 20 explosion and collapse of the rig, which gushed crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico for 86 days.
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He would never say what he was thinking, but it was clear that he resented the time she spent at the hospital, and Eva had started looking forward to the days or weeks when her husband was away, inspecting a rig in the North Sea or designing some mysterious installation in Egypt or Nigeria.
An explosion on an offshore rig killed 11 workers and ruptured a deep-sea well head, which took 84 days to seal.
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