accident took place on an oil platform that the company was / had been contracted to build...

[Leafka]

Hi,

The sentence below is my own:

The accident happened during the construction of an oil platform that the company was / had been contracted to build for XYZ.

I cannot decide which tense to use here: had been contracted = had signed a contract? was contracted = was under a contract?

 

[boozer]

Yeah, both sound fine to me.

 

[dojibear]

1> The accident happened during the construction of an oil platform that the company was contracted to build for XYZ.

2> The accident happened during the construction of an oil platform that the company had been contracted to build for XYZ.

Both are fine in AE.

 

[DonnyB]

XYZ awarded the company a contract to build the platform, and the accident then happened while they were building it.

So, personally I would use the pluperfect in BE there:
The accident happened during the construction of an oil platform that the company had been contracted to build for XYZ.