oil rig 33 articles

Oklahoma oil and gas workers and their families recently welcomed news that the state’s highest court struck down a rule exempting oil and natural gas companies from being sued when their workers are injured or killed on the job. On Jan. 23, the Oklahoma Supreme Court found the part of the state’s workers compensation law giving oil and natural gas companies special immunity from the law was unconstitutional. The unanimous decision with one recusal resolves a lawsuit brought by the daughter of a worker who was killed in a well site accident in Crescent, Oklahoma, in 2013. David Chambers worked ... Read More

Three offshore oil companies and three individuals have been charged for their roles in causing the November 2012 explosion of an oil production platform in the Gulf of Mexico that killed three workers, injured several others, and created an oil spill. Black Elk Energy Offshore Operations and Grand Isle Shipyards Inc. were charged with three counts of involuntary manslaughter, eight counts of failing to follow proper safety practices under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), and one count of violating the Clean Water Act. Wood Group PSN Inc. and employees Don Moss, 46, of Texas; Curtis Dantin, 50, of ... Read More

NEW ORLEANS—Federal prosecutors have charged offshore driller Black Elk Energy with federal felony charges in connection with a 2012 Gulf of Mexico oil rig explosion that killed three workers and seriously injured three others. The charges stem from a 2013 report by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) that pinned the explosion on a multitude of bad decisions and safety failures by Black Elk and the contractors it retained for construction work on the offshore platform, situated about 20 miles south of Grand Isle, La. According to the report, “These failures reflect a disregard for the safety of ... Read More

A massive explosion on an offshore oil rig in the southern Gulf of Mexico killed four workers and injured at least 16 others Wednesday morning, Mexico’s state-run Pemex (Petróleos Mexicanos) oil producer confirmed. More than 300 workers were evacuated from the Abkatun Permanente platform after a fire broke out Tuesday night. The platform sits in the oil-rich Bay of Campeche a few miles off the coast of Ciudad del Carmen near the western shores of the Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. Local rescue workers said that as many as 45 workers may have been injured. The fire broke out in a dewatering ... Read More

An explosion aboard an offshore drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico killed one worker and injured three others Thursday afternoon. According to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, the oil rig blast occurred just before 3 p.m. Thursday on Echo Platform, a drilling rig operated by Houston, Texas-based Fieldwood Energy. Fieldwood said in a Friday statement that contract workers were cleaning a piece of equipment known as a “heater treater,” which is used to separate oil from water on the platform, when the explosion occurred. The blast did not create a fire aboard the rig, investigators said. The ... Read More

Beasley Allen lawyer Rhon Jones, who is serving on the plaintiffs steering committee for the BP oil spill litigation, told the Troy Messenger that he feels confident about the case, which is set to begin trial in U.S. District Court in New Orleans Monday. The case against BP and its partner companies for their role in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion is considered by many legal analysts to be the biggest environmental lawsuit the world has ever seen. The case against BP for the disastrous oil spill that harmed thousands of individuals and businesses along the Gulf Coast has so ... Read More

BP and minority partner Anadarko Petroleum Corp. will have to pay civil penalties for violations of the Clean Water Act that led to the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier, who is presiding over BP oil-spill litigation, ruled Wednesday. The fines are calculated on a per-barrel basis and will be determined at a later date. According to the Clean Water Act, fines can range from $1,100 per barrel of oil spilled to $4,300 per barrel, with the higher charges levied should gross negligence be ruled a factor in the cause of the oil spill. Additionally, ... Read More

Legislators from the Gulf States are one step closer to making sure billions of dollars in oil-spill fine money collected from BP’s violations of the Clean Water Act will go to the Gulf Coast states rather than into the federal government’s general fund. The House gave approval last week to an amendment that would apportion 80 percent of the fine money to the Gulf States directly harmed by the disastrous 2010 oil spill, but they are still in a race against the clock to make sure the amendment gets Senate approval before the oil-spill fines are determined and collected in ... Read More

BP and supplier M-I Swaco, a Houston-based drilling mud supplier, agreed Friday to settle all claims with each other over the Deepwater Horizon explosion that led to the worst oil spill in U.S. history. M-I Swaco, also known as M-I LLC, provided drilling fluid to BP for use in the Macondo well. As it did with other companies that had a hand in the Macondo well operation, BP sought a payout from the supplier, blaming the Deepwater Horizon explosion on it in part. In a claim filed last June, BP claims that M-I “failed to provide, control, and monitor the ... Read More

Weatherford U.S. LP, a Swiss oilfield service company that built key parts of BP’s failed Macondo well, will not have to face civil or criminal penalties and punitive damages for its role in the deadly Deepwater Horizon explosion and Gulf of Mexico oil spill, U.S. District Judge Judge Carl Barbier said Friday. Weatherford designed and built the doomed well’s float collar, a device that sat at the well’s opening three miles below the seafloor. The device was supposed to ensure the cement poured into the well did not rise to the surface before it had time to set. Federal investigations ... Read More