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Compensation for Texas Oilfield and Drilling Accidents
Houston Oilfield Accident Lawyers
Oilfield work pays well because it is dangerous, and when a drilling or well-servicing accident was caused by someone cutting corners, the worker should not be left to carry the cost.
Texas law lets an injured oilfield worker recover the full value of that harm from the companies responsible, which on a drilling site is rarely just the employer.
The operator that set the pace, the drilling contractor, the service companies, and the maker of failed equipment can each share the blame.
Lawsuit Legal works from our Houston office, the headquarters city for much of the energy industry, and represents oilfield workers hurt across the Permian Basin, the Eagle Ford, and the Gulf Coast.
Our Texas cases are led by personal injury attorney Don Worley, licensed by the State Bar of Texas, with more than 40,000 cases handled and over $100 million recovered for injury victims.
Oilfield cases are built on contracts and evidence that move off-site fast once the rig is back turning to the right.
When the operators and their insurers will not pay what a claim is worth, our trial-ready attorneys are prepared to take it to a Texas jury.
Call (888) 713-6653 for a free, confidential review of your oilfield accident claim. You Win or It's Free.
- $100+ million recovered w/ 98% recovery rate
- Drilling, well-servicing, and energy injury cases across Texas
- Free Legal Evaluation - You Pay Nothing Unless We Win
How Oilfield Accidents Happen on Texas Drilling Sites
Texas runs the busiest oil patch in the country, from the Permian Basin in West Texas to the Eagle Ford in South Texas, and the work moves around the clock under constant pressure to keep the rig turning. Oil and gas extraction carries a worker fatality rate several times the national average, and federal safety agencies report that highway crashes, not the rig floor, are the single leading cause of death in the industry.[1]
The oilfield injuries our attorneys handle usually come from one of these hazards:
- Blowouts and well-control failures when pressure is lost and a blowout preventer or procedure fails, leading to fires and explosions.
- Struck-by and caught-in injuries from tongs, the top drive, spinning chain, and pipe handled on a crowded rig floor.
- Falls from the derrick, mast, or rig floor, often where fall protection was missing or improvised.
- High-pressure line and pump failures during fracturing and pressure pumping, where a parted iron line strikes with lethal force.
- Hydrogen sulfide exposure, a toxic gas that can kill within minutes when monitors and rescue plans are inadequate.
- Transport and frac-sand truck crashes on rural lease roads and highways, the hazard that kills the most oilfield workers.
Oilfield injuries also vary by the phase of the work. Drilling carries the blowout and rotating-equipment risks of a live rig floor. Completion and hydraulic fracturing add high-pressure pumps and iron that can part under thousands of pounds of pressure. Workover and well-servicing crews face pressure and equipment hazards on older wells, and the production and transport phase puts workers around tank batteries, hydrogen sulfide, and the lease roads where most oilfield deaths happen. Each phase brings a different mix of companies on location, and a different set of potential defendants.
What these hazards have in common is that they are predictable, and the safety plan that should have prevented them is written long before the crew ever arrives on location.
Who Is Liable for an Oilfield Injury
An oilfield injury almost always involves several companies, because the modern drilling site is a stack of contractors working under one operator. The injured worker usually works for a small service company, while the decisions that caused the injury were made higher up the chain. Texas law lets you pursue each company whose negligence contributed.
The operator. The oil company that owns the lease and runs the project often controls the schedule, the well plan, and the conditions that create the danger. When it pushes an unsafe pace or ignores a known hazard, it can be liable to a contractor's injured worker.
The drilling contractor and service companies. The drilling contractor, the pressure-pumping company, the wireline crew, and the other service companies on location each owe a duty to work safely, and a crew's negligence is a claim against its employer.
Equipment manufacturers. A blowout preventer, a high-pressure line, or a piece of rig equipment that fails can support a product-liability claim against its maker.
The contracts behind the worksite. Oilfield companies allocate blame in advance through Master Service Agreements stacked with indemnity and additional-insured clauses. The Texas Oilfield Anti-Indemnity Act voids many of those clauses, which keeps a contract from quietly shifting liability away from the company that actually caused the harm.[2]
Most oilfield injuries get blamed on the man on the rig floor, but the pace that hurt him was set in an office that never sees the rig. The oilfield runs on contracts written to push liability down to the smallest company on location. Part of our job is reading those agreements and knowing which clauses Texas law refuses to enforce. We trace liability up the chain to pursue meaningful accountability and maximum compensation.
We handle the full range of industrial and energy accident claims across Texas.
Workers' Comp, a Non-Subscriber Claim, ERISA Benefits, or a Lawsuit
Oilfield employers handle injury coverage in several different ways, and which one applies decides what your claim is worth. We sort this out first.
The employer carries workers' compensation. Comp pays medical and partial wages regardless of fault, but it does not pay for pain or full lost earnings. A third-party claim against the operator, another service company, or an equipment maker recovers the rest.
The employer is a non-subscriber. Texas lets employers opt out of comp, and many oilfield companies do. A non-subscriber can be sued directly for negligence with no damage cap, and it loses the defenses a normal employer would have.[3]
The employer uses a private injury-benefit plan. Some oilfield employers replace comp with an ERISA occupational injury plan. These plans limit benefits and often require arbitration, and reviewing the plan document is essential before you sign or accept anything.
You were working for one company on another's location. As with most oilfield injuries, this usually means the strongest case, because the operator and the other service companies are third parties you can pursue in full.
Knowing which path applies, and how they stack, is the difference between a capped benefit and a full recovery. See our workplace injury attorneys for how these claims fit together.
Recoverable Damages in an Oilfield Accident Claim
Texas does not cap damages in an ordinary injury case, so an oilfield claim is valued by the evidence, not a statutory ceiling. The lost-earnings piece is often large, because oilfield wages are high and a serious injury can end a career in skilled field work.
An oilfield accident claim may recover:
- Past and future medical care, including surgery, burn treatment, and long-term rehabilitation.
- Lost wages and lost future earning capacity, measured against oilfield pay rather than an average salary.
- Pain, suffering, and mental anguish, including trauma after a blowout, fire, or crush injury.
- Disfigurement and permanent scarring from burns and equipment injuries.
- Physical impairment and loss of enjoyment of life for amputations and permanent limitations.
- Life-care costs for a catastrophic injury requiring ongoing care.
- Wrongful death damages for a family that lost a worker.
- Exemplary damages where the conduct was grossly negligent, capped under Section 41.008.[4]
An early offer that lands before treatment is finished is priced to close the file, not to replace a career. A free review is the fastest way to learn what your claim realistically involves.
Common Oilfield Injuries
The combination of pressure, heavy iron, height, and toxic gas produces a severe injury profile.
- Burns from fires and blowouts. Well-control failures and line ruptures cause severe burns that require grafting and long burn-unit stays.
- Crush injuries and amputations from tongs, pipe, and caught-in rotating equipment on the rig floor.
- Traumatic brain and spinal injuries from falls and being struck, including brain injuries that are easy to miss at first.
- Hydrogen sulfide poisoning, which can be fatal in minutes and cause lasting neurological damage in survivors.
- Highway and transport trauma from frac-sand trucks, water haulers, and crew vehicles on lease roads.
- Hearing loss and repetitive trauma from sustained exposure to high-noise, high-force work.
Many of these injuries end a field career, which is why the lost-earning-capacity figure is often the largest part of an oilfield claim.
What to Do After an Oilfield Accident
The evidence that proves an oilfield case is scattered across the worksite and the contractors' records, and it moves quickly once the crew rotates out. The deadline to file is generally two years from the injury under Section 16.003, and the practical clock is shorter, because the field records and contracts move off-site well before then.[5]
- Get medical care and document the cause. Accept transport, and make sure the records reflect how the injury happened on location.
- Report the injury in writing and keep a copy of any incident report and the daily drilling or service report.
- Do not sign anything from the employer, the operator, or an insurer, including a benefit-plan election or a release, before you understand your rights.
- Note the companies on location. Write down every contractor and service company on site and the equipment involved, because each is a potential defendant.
- Preserve the paperwork. The job safety analysis, the Master Service Agreement, and the equipment records decide the case, and a lawyer's preservation demand keeps them from disappearing.
- Call a Houston oilfield lawyer quickly, because contracts and field records move off-site fast.