The owner of the Deepwater Horizon that exploded in flames and sank in the Gulf of Mexico, Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG), has filed a petition in the the US District Court in Houston seeking to limit the company’s liability for the incident and asking the court to issue an injuction restricting lawsuits already filed in another jurisdiction. The explosion at a well being drilled for BP plc. (NYSE: BP) destroyed the semi-submersible Deepwater Horizon and killed 11 workers.

The law under which Transocean filed the petition is 150 years old and was designed to limit the liability of a vessel’s owner to the value of the vessel and cargo after the accident has occurred. At the time of enactment, the law leveled the playing field for US shippers who were competing with foreign ship owners who already had liability protection.

Transocean places a value of just under $27 million on the wreckage of the Deepwater Horizon as it now lies 5,000 feet below the surface. The rig cost about $650 million to build.

According to maritime lawyers contacted by the Wall Street Journal, it is rarely the case that the Limitation of Liability Act of 1851 is of any use in limiting a company’s liability. Its main use is to help the likely defendant, Transocean, gain some control over where lawsuits are filed and to slow down the flood of litigation that follows an accident. Transocean’s petition could also help it keep lawsuits from being tried in front of a jury, which is believed to be more sympathetic to injured people than judges.

Transocean’s filing comes just two days after the company appeared in front of a Senate committee together with representatives from BP and Halliburton Co. (NYSE: HAL). That session was notable for its attempts by all three company spokesmen to point the finger of blame at one or both of the other parties.

In an appearance before a US House of Representatives committe yesterday, the three companies were charged with ignoring tests that demonstrated that the blow-out preventer (BOP). According to the House committee members, the BOP had a dead battery, there was a leak in the well casing, and a test on the BOP’s shear ram failed. Pressure tests were also inconclusive, but the decision was made to seal the well. As the mud used to push the cement into the well was removed, much lighter seawater flowed into the well allowing gas to rise. That gas eventually reached the surface and ignited.

There are still a lot of details missing or obscured about who did what on whose orders. At this point, though, remembering the dead and stopping the flow of oil in the Gulf are the first orders of business.

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