Oil rig safety oversight failing despite millions in funding
As federal safety officials responded Friday to a death on a Gulf of Mexico oil rig, the agency in charge of oil-rig safety received a rebuke from a congressional watchdog office that found poor management has caused it to fail in its most basic functions.
A worker was fatally injured while working on the rig, operated by Houston-based Whistler Energy II, about 150 miles south of New Orleans, according to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. All drilling operations there have been suspended while an investigation into death begins.