A Texas-based offshore drilling company has been convicted in connection with an incident which almost killed one of its employees six years ago.

Transocean Drilling Services was originally charged with two offences under offshore health and safety regulations; namely, failing to ensure a crane was properly operated, and allowing the crane signaler to do other work at the same time.

The incident occurred on Sept. 6th, 2019 aboard the Transocean Barents rig in the Terra Nova oilfield, and left then-27-year-old Chris Ryan with serious, life-threatening injuries.

He was nearly crushed to death when the crane accidentally hooked a piece of equipment, trapping him against a railing.

The company pleaded not guilty, and there was a trial, with Judge Lois Skanes delivering a guilty verdict this morning on the first charge, but an acquittal on the second.

Skanes ruled the company failed to exercise due diligence with operations that day, noting while they followed their own policies, some of those policies weren’t in line with the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Marine Installations and Structures Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Transitional Regulations.

The company is facing a fine but neither the Crown nor defence have made submissions on sentence.

The victim spent almost five months in hospital recovering from injuries to his spine, ribs, collarbone, pancreas, liver and colon.

The court will hear how the incident upended his life during the sentencing phase when the case is called again on September 2nd.