Yearly Archives: 2022

The Houston Chronicle published a story in their Sunday edition concerning the number of fatalities in the oil and gas industry. The story focused on the trend in Texas that workplace deaths are decreasing in all industries but the oilfield. Statistics show from 2007-2011 there were 197 workplace fatalities reported for energy related companies.

The Chronicle article told the story of a rig worker whose death prompted the largest OSHA fine in Texas history against Nabors Well Services and sister company Nabors Drilling USA LLC. These companies have the most recently reported OSHA deaths in Texas. The victim was struck in the head after an incorrectly placed metal attachment fell from a forklift. The driver of the forklift confused the levers and dropped the piece. Six serious violations were found by OSHA inspectors and a fine of $36,725 was levied.  The fine was later reduced.

The article cited examples of other oil companies being at fault for fatalities but paying low fines even though a death was involved. Unit Texas was fined $1,625 for the death of a worker in 2007.

Houston-based Express Energy has OSHA violations totaling $5,650 for two of three fatalities. A fatal accident in 2012 is still under review.

Nabors fatal accidents record also includes two electrocution deaths at East Texas drill sites in 2007 and 2010.

In response to these deaths, OSHA has increased the number of proactive inspections at oil exploration and production sites across the states. Nabors’ rigs in Beaumont and Liberty County were proactively inspected and proposed penalties of $152,100 were found. The company is currently contesting the fines.

The number of deaths occurring in the oilfield has prompted a different response from OSHA. They have asked oil and gas employers in Texas and four other states to temporary halt work in a voluntary “stand down” to draw attention to potentially life-threatening risks.

Doyle has represented many oil and gas workers injured by unsafe working conditions. In one example, we represented two clients injured during the pigging of oilfield tubing. Other clients have been involved in helicopter crashes while flying to an offshore oil rig  These accidents were preventable and resulted from a failure to comply with safety guidelines. We stand behind these victims and their families in the fight for safe oilfield work environments.

The ill-fated Carnival Cruise ship Triumph has been docked in Mobile, Alabama while investigators piece together the cause of the fire that left the ship adrift in the Gulf of Mexico. The Coast Guard announced Monday afternoon that a leaking fuel-oil return line running from one of the ship’s engines was the cause of the fire but it is not known what caused the leak.

After four days of aimlessly drifting, the ship was towed to a port in Mobile where all passengers were provided travel to New Orleans and Houston. Litigation has already been filed by several passengers relying on maritime law to cover their experience. In addition to claims by passengers, however, the Jones Act is the federal law that governs claims that seamen and cruise ship employees may have for injuries they sustained in the course of their service on the vessel. Many of the workers aboard a vessel such as Triumph are employed to perform the same tasks as hotel and restaurant workers on land. These types of industries are often injury prone due to the nature of the work.

The reported conditions onboard the ship include health and safety hazards for crewmembers continuing to work in the scope of their employment. Passengers reported slippery walkways, lack of food and potable water and sewage soaked carpets. Carnival has not announced plans for compensation for the crew, nor disclosed what injuries staff members might have suffered.

The Jones Act lawyers at Doyle Dennis Avery LLP have handled a number of claims against the cruise industry for created an unsafe work environment for cruise ship workers.

Doyle has filed a negligence lawsuit against T&T Marine Salvage and Titan Maritime on behalf of a worker who was thrown 30 feet in the air and dropped on the beach landing on his back.

The plaintiff was an employee of T&T Salvage in Texas and the company sent him to Chile to work on the salvage of a grounded vessel offshore Puerto San Antonio. While on the shore operating a winch to unload cargo from the ship, the line on the winch broke. A cable from the vessel en-wrapped the plaintiff’s leg and body and launched him into the air.

After landing on the beach, he was rushed to the hospital where a pain shot was administered and the plaintiff was released. He was taken to a motel for three days without pain medication while waiting for a flight back to Texas. The plaintiff was taken directly from the airport to an urgent care clinic chosen by T&T Salvage where a pulled muscle was diagnosed, light duty and painkillers were prescribed. The plaintiff sought an independent physician who diagnosed two protruding discs in his back after review of a MRI.

T&T Salvage negligently failed to provide safe, properly maintained equipment and work facilities for the plaintiff’s use to carry out his job duties.  The company also failed to provide proper training and supervision. Managers of T&T Salvage and Titan Maritime had obligations to safety they failed to uphold by proceeding with conscious indifference to the rights, safety and welfare of the plaintiff despite having awareness of the risk involved.

Doyle stands behind this client in their fight for justice and accountability for his injury and inability to work.

A Doyle client has been awarded a unanimous $9.6 million jury verdict against Diamond Offshore Services.  The plaintiff was employed by Diamond Offshore on a semi-submersible drilling vessel, OCEAN LEXINGTON, as a drilling worker in January 2008 when he was injured while offshore Egypt.

The plaintiff is a Mississippi resident and was working for the Houston-based Diamond Offshore Services as a mechanical supervisor.  He was ordered to unsafely repair a set of elevators, used to lift pipe into the drilling operations, to avoid a shutdown of the drilling operations being conducted for BP.  Diamond Offshore’s failure to have sufficient elevator spares onboard, as well as its failure to properly maintain its equipment in a safe and seaworthy manner, created an unnecessary emergency situation and directly led to his career-ending back injury.  The jury found that Diamond Offshore’s vessel was unseaworthy and its operational negligence was also responsible for Mr. Williams’ injuries.

Michael Patrick Doyle was lead trial lawyer and said, “Diamond Offshore promises a comprehensive safety program, at least on paper, but the jury’s verdict confirms, in practice, that Diamond Offshore is ready to jettison these critical equipment and operational standards to avoiding jeopardizing any shutdown financial penalties. The jury’s verdict supports the evidence of the company’s willingness to expose its own employees, rig and the environment to potentially disastrous consequences.”

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Baker Hughes Inc., the Houston- based oilfield services company, reported the number of rigs exploring for oil and natural gas in the U.S. rose by 12 this week to 1,754.

Of the more than 1,700 rigs, 1,383 were exploring for oil and 365 for gas. A year ago, there were 1,806 rigs. The U.S. rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981 and bottomed at 488 in 1999.

This report was issued the same week the company suspended operations in Iraq following a weekend protest.

The number of rigs actively exploring for oil and natural gas increasing also brings an increase in injuries and fatalities. Every year hundreds of workers are injured; some are able to navigate the system and receive proper compensation and medical care while many are not.

Admiralty law is designed with provisions to take care of an injured seaman. Maintenance and cure is the doctrine of paying an injured seaman’s medical care while also ensuring long-term health while providing financial payment while he is unable to work. Vessel owners are required to provide maintenance and cure; injured seamen have legal recourse if this does not happen.  When a maritime employer’s negligence results in an injury, a seaman may also maintain a lawsuit under the Jones Act.  The Jones Act protects maritime families by providing an avenue for recovery of future medical expenses, lost wage earning capacity, and all of the emotional and family harms that result from an offshore injury.

For more information about the rights injured offshore workers have regarding unpaid medical costs, please click here.

Via scandoil.com and 4-traders.com