NEW ORLEANS—The U.S. government alleges that Transocean Holdings L.L.C. is not cooperating with its investigation of the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and has asked a judge to order the company to comply with three subpoenas seeking information.

In its complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, the government alleges that Houston-based Transocean, which owned the rig, refused to produce safety documents from 1998, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008 and 2010.

The government issued three subpoenas—in August, September and October—demanding 12 years of records from Transocean.

The Nov. 23 complaint was filed in New Orleans on behalf of the Joint Board of Investigation of the U.S. Coast Guard and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

According to the complaint, the Joint Board of Investigation on Oct. 21 issued a subpoena to Transocean requesting “all documents relating to the internal safety management system audit report for all Transocean vessels that operated in the Gulf of Mexico” at the time the Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20.

The subpoena for records was issued as part of the joint investigation to determine the cause of the Deepwater Horizon “blowout, fire, explosion and oil spill,” according to the suit. The April oil spill was the worst in U.S. history.

Transocean did not respond to the first two requests for information and responded in writing to the third request, according to the complaint.

In its Nov. 4 response, Transocean addressed some of the requests by the government, but refused to provide “all documents relating to the ISM audit report for all Transocean vessels that operated in the Gulf of Mexico at the time of the casualty,” as well as external safety audits since the system was adopted 12 years ago, according to the complaint.

“Transocean objected and produced no documents” to those requests, the government said in the complaint.

The Joint Board of Investigation's next hearings on the Deepwater Horizon are scheduled for Dec. 7-9 in Houston.