M maintained that he remained independent and impartial in all the cases. M explained that, although the References all arose out of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, they did not raise the same, "or even similar", issues. He stated that he had not disclosed the two appointments by Transocean, because it did not occur to him at the time that the IBA Guidelines on Conflict of Interest in International Arbitration obliged him to do so. Both sides accepted this explanation as truthful.