Oil Rig Explosion Lawyer Representing Accident Victims of Drilling Rigs
Dan Moore, a Texas oil rig explosion lawyer, utilizes the latest and best technologies for advanced investigation and accident reconstruction to ensure the judge and jury completely understand the causes of the accident and the negligent behaviors that led to and contributed to the accident.
Contact The Law Office of Dan Moore if you or a loved one was hurt in an oilfield, oil rig, or refinery disaster. Our oil rig explosion lawyers have handled a wide range of lawsuits involving mishaps in the oil and gas sector. Because of the hazardous nature of the work, you are entitled to compensation when careless employers or other parties result in an accident and an oil rig injury.
When workers and their families fight for justice following a serious or fatal drilling rig disaster, The Law Office of Dan Moore considers it an honor ”wreck” the plans of the big oil companies and their insurance providers. Since drilling rig accidents can be challenging to investigate and several state and federal regulations might be relevant, it is advantageous to have experienced representation in these cases.
The Merchant Marine Act of 1920, sometimes known as the Jones Act, may apply if an offshore drilling rig is involved, as opposed to Texas personal injury law or workers’ compensation regulations. As it offers rights for hurt workers who have been engaged in an accident on fixed oil production platforms, the federal Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act may also apply.
Oil Rig Explosion Lawyers at The Law Office of Dan Moore represents the injured in the following type of cases:
- Explosions in pipelines
- Explosions on oil rigs and blowouts
- Accidents at Plants and Refineries
- Drilling Rig Mishaps
- Oilfield Mishaps
- Traffic Collisions in Oilfields
The following drilling rig accidents represent some of the victims of drilling rig accidents that received substantial compensation for their injuries:
Quinton Gas Rig Explosion
The largest jury verdict in the county’s history was rendered in favor of the victims of the deadliest oil drilling accident since Deepwater Horizon.
Following the Patterson 219 oil rig fire in Quinton, Oklahoma, on January 22, 2018, which was thought to be the deadliest drilling accident since the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, an Oklahoma jury awarded $20,000,000.00 in a wrongful death claim in January 2020.
The $20 million jury judgment is one of the greatest jury verdicts ever delivered in the State of Oklahoma and the largest jury verdict in the history of Pittsburg County.
Eagle Ford Shale: Catastrophic Burns and Drilling Rig Fire
Uriel Tejeda sustained severe burns to his head, trunk, buttock, arms, legs, and hands as he was literally enveloped in flames in April 2011 while working on a drilling site when an incorrectly anchored steel line separated, cutting an electrical cable. In a Nueces County lawsuit that was eventually resolved for an undisclosed sum, the victim, his wife, and their two children sued seven (7) defendants on their behalf.
Failure of the Apache Drilling Rig’s Equipment by Electrocution
Noel Cardenas was electrocuted while operating a forklift in January 2006 when he was working at a well site in Wharton County, Texas. Despite without any formal training or certification in forklift operation, he was given the responsibility of operating the machine.
Additionally, Mr. Cardenas had previously experienced difficulties using a forklift while at work, and his supervisors knew full well that he had previously experienced difficulties at the well site when they gave him the go-ahead to use the forklift on the day of his passing. The matter was brought before a Texas court in Wharton County and later resolved for an undisclosed amount.
Speak With an Oil Rig Explosion Lawyer Today
Oil Field Drilling Rig Accidents
What Are Oil Rigs?
Oil and gas firms extract crude oil or natural gas from the soil using drilling rigs. The intricate engineering required for the job is referred to as the “rig.” Drilling rigs are intricate systems that rely on human and mechanical labor to complete the operation of digging into rock and soil to extract the earth’s fuels and then transform them into salable petroleum products. Texas is known across the world for its drilling rigs (or platforms) that can be found both on land and at sea.
Texas Inland Oil Rigs
The Permian Basin in Texas is known as the “second most productive oil field in the world” and is credited with saving the American petroleum industry from collapse. Read Clifford Krauss’ article from the New York Times on February 3rd, “The ‘Monster’ Texas Oil Field That Made the U.S. a Star in the World Market.” Approximately 464 drilling rigs were active in the Permian Basin alone that year, albeit this number decreased due to the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic.
With its rigs covering more than 30 counties in South Texas, the Eagle Ford Shale has also developed a reputation for assisting in the growth of the oil and gas market. Read David Blackmon’s article, “Happy 10th Anniversary to the Eagle Ford Shale,” which appeared in Forbes on October 21, 2018.
The Law Office of Dan Moore is well known for trying cases in Midland, TX, in the heart of the Eagle Ford. From truck accidents to Rig explosions, Dan Moore has “wrecked” the cases of big oil companies and their insurance carriers, winning large settlements and jury trials where clients received maximum compensation for their injuries.
Platforms Offshore
Additionally, there are significant offshore drilling operations in Texas, where people live and work on enormous seaward buildings. The Gulf of Mexico is home to the most offshore rigs in the entire world. Over 6000 offshore oil and gas buildings have been built off the coast of Texas in the Gulf of Mexico since 1942, with 3200 operational rigs (or platforms) still in use as of this writing, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information. View the online NCEI map of Oil and Gas Structures in the Gulf of Mexico for further information.
These offshore drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico are some of the biggest ones ever built. For instance, Stones is the world’s deepest oil and gas facility. It is a Shell-owned and -operated floating production, storage, and unloading facility. It floats about 200 miles southwest of New Orleans in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Texas.
The deepest spar-type oil platform in the world is Shell’s Perdido, which is located in the Gulf of Mexico 200 miles south of Freeport, Texas. Stones are the only other deepest drilling activity in the globe. One of the sixth largest offshore installations in the world, the Shell-owned Olympus is situated in the Gulf of Mexico 130 miles south of New Orleans.
What Are Some Illustrations of Oilfield and Oil Rig Mishaps?
Texas has a high rate of incidents involving oil rigs and oilfield mishaps. There are several ways in which an accident might happen at an oilfield, refinery, or drilling site. Workplaces can be hazardous places.
Examples of incidents involving offshore oil rigs and oilfields include:
- Faulty or defective equipment
- Equipment problems
- Explosions
- Being exposed to harmful substances or chemicals
- Fires
- Setting up (Rigging up) or dismantling an oil rig
- Falling down incidents
- Hit by machinery or things
- Transportation-related mishaps (leading cause of fatal occupational injuries in 2015)
- Moving through dangerous areas
- A blowout well
Many accidents are entirely preventable and are brought on by a third party’s or an employer’s irresponsibility. Serious accidents and catastrophic casualties on oil rigs can be caused by poor safety measures, a failure to follow safety rules, a lack of training, and careless hiring and supervision methods.
A claim made against a party other than your employer is known as a third-party claim. Examples of third parties that might be held accountable for an accident or even fatalities on an oil rig include outside contractors and equipment makers. Contact our oil rig explosion lawyers at The Law Office of Dan Moore to learn more.
Workers in Drilling Are at Deadly Risks: Group Fatality
When working on a drilling rig, professional workers must rely on one another to complete duties proficiently, and with an understanding of the hazards and dangers, they may encounter. Although they are aware that they are working in a very hazardous area, these men and women approach their jobs professionally. Drilling rigs must be treated with care as hazardous workplaces where even a small error could cause significant harm or death.
There are many different talents needed on a drilling rig, and the majority of drilling operations require a team effort to function, including roustabouts, drillers, maintenance electricians, drilling fluids operators, and more.
On drilling rigs, catastrophic outcomes are possible if either a human or mechanical component of the drilling operation fails. Burns, smoke inhalation, and toxic fume exposure are all potential causes of injuries and even death on the platform itself. Since serious offshore drilling rig mishaps can result in the rig itself collapsing into the water, there is also a risk of drowning on an offshore drilling rig. Because the bodies of the victims cannot be recovered in serious incidents, the causes of death can never be determined.
For instance, in the 1988 Piper Alpha accident, the deadliest offshore oil rig catastrophe in history, multiple explosions killed all but 61 of the 226 workers on the offshore drilling platform. The catastrophe was brought on by natural gas leakage from an exposed condensate line that was only momentarily covered with two blind flanges. Read “Piper Alpha: The Disaster in Detail,” authored by Fiona Macleod CEng FIChemE and Stephen Richardson and published on July 6, 2018, in the Chemical Engineer. Several issues are cited as having contributed to the tragedy, including:
Change Management (Design Difficulties);
Personal safety comes before process safety (divers are protected by manually starting water pumps on fire); Isolation during maintenance and permits (pump started before maintenance was finished);
- Handover (poor information transfer across crews, shifts, and specialties);
- a safety culture that is complacent and assumes everything is fine;
- Evacuation in response to an emergency.
Perilous Risks for Drilling Workers: Death
One worker may perish in a drilling rig catastrophe, or the bulk of people employed there may perish. While blowouts and oil rig explosions result in the terrible loss of many people, drilling rig accidents can also result in the death or serious permanent injury of one or more workers at the site.
These mishaps on the drilling rig may be caused by factors like:
- Automobile & Truck Accidents (Oilfield Traffic Collisions)
- Fires
- Falls
- Electrical Exposition (electrocution)
- A tool or machine malfunction.
How To Get Paid for Your Injuries
Contact our oil rig explosion lawyers at The Law Office of Dan Moore to discuss about your case.
The severity of oilfield and oil rig accidents frequently results in fatalities and catastrophic injuries. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that in 2015, 120 workers in the oil and gas sector died from their injuries. Burns, severe brain injuries, shattered bones, spinal cord injuries, and eye injuries are among the more typical wounds. These injuries can have a long-term impact on a person’s quality of life and necessitate years of care. We aim to obtain the most amount of available compensation because of this. In the event of an oilfield or oil rig accident, recoverable damages could include:
- Lack of cooperation
- Loss of current and future income
- Mental suffering
- Anguish and distress
- Past and upcoming medical expenses (surgeries, treatments, rehabilitation, prescriptions)
- Costs associated with your injuries on a personal or household level
Expert Witnesses in the Oilfield Are Crucial
Oil rig explosion lawyer at The Law Office of Dan Moore hires a range of expert witnesses to help affected clients get the most favorable outcome possible in their oilfield accident or death case. Expert testimony on matters relevant to the case is extremely useful. Our firm has spent years recruiting top experts from all across the country, and each witness is thoroughly vetted before testifying on behalf of a client.
Expert witnesses in oilfield and oil rig accident trials could be:
- OSHA advisors
- Engineering professionals
- Professionals in occupational and environmental health
- Experts in safety equipment
- Experts in accident reconstruction
- Medical specialists (such as doctors, physical therapists, and psychologists)
Speak With an Oil Rig Explosion Lawyer on Your Oil Rig Accident Today
Contact The Law Office of Dan Moore if you or a loved one was hurt in an oilfield, oil rig, or refinery disaster. Our oil rig explosion lawyers have handled a wide range of lawsuits involving mishaps in the oil and gas sector. Because of the hazardous nature of the work, you are entitled to compensation when careless employers or other parties result in an accident and an oil rig injury.
Hiring an oil rig explosion lawyer as soon as you can after an oilfield or oil rig accident is crucial.
At The Law Office of Dan Moore, our oil rig explosion lawyers have years of experience figuring out how work-related injuries happen and identifying the accident’s cause. Call right away to schedule a free legal consultation at our offices.
Call (972) 245-5432888-2-WRECKMAN to reach us for a free case review, or submit your case. The insurance firms and major oil and gas businesses that refuse to compensate you for your injuries are wrecked by Dan “The Wreck Man”! Dan will wreck and sabotage their schemes and make sure you get the most money possible for your injuries!
