Oilfield Explosion Lawyer in South Texas

An oilfield explosion is almost never an accident in the legal sense. Gas that should have been vented, a tank that should have been gauged from a distance, a wellhead that should have been shut in, a hot-work permit that was never pulled. Someone decided to skip a step, and a worker paid for it.

Because the injured worker is usually employed by a contractor rather than the operator, the case is rarely against the employer. It is against the operator, the drilling contractor, the pressure-pumping company, the trucking company at the tank battery, or the manufacturer of the equipment that failed — whichever of them controlled the work and knew about the danger.

Sadovsky & Ellis is a San Antonio trial firm that takes explosion and burn cases across the Eagle Ford counties. We handle these matters in-house, and the consultation is free.

What is an oilfield explosion case, in plain terms?

It is a negligence or gross-negligence claim against a company that controlled a well site, a piece of equipment, or a task, and that knew of a hazard that ignited. In Texas the employer is usually shielded by workers’ compensation, so the claim runs against the non-employer companies on location — the operator, the drilling contractor, the well-servicing company, the equipment maker — under Chapter 95 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code and ordinary premises and product liability law. Damages include medical care, lost earning capacity, disfigurement, physical impairment, pain, and, where a worker died, the claims of the spouse, children and parents under Chapters 71 and 78.

How explosions happen on Eagle Ford locations

Every explosion needs fuel, oxygen and an ignition source. On a well site the fuel is everywhere — produced gas, condensate, crude vapor, hydrogen sulfide, frac fluid additives — so the case is almost always about ignition and about why the fuel was where it should not have been.

• Well blowouts and kicks — formation pressure overwhelms the mud column or a blowout preventer fails to close. The questions are the well-control plan, the BOP test records, and who was on the brake when the well started talking.
• Tank battery and flowback explosions — a worker gauges or thief-hatches a tank while it vents, a heater-treater fires with gas in the line, or a vacuum truck loads without bonding. Static, a pickup’s exhaust, and a cell phone have each been the spark.
• Hot work without a permit — welding, grinding or cutting near a vessel that was never gas-tested. The hot-work permit, or the absence of one, is the first document we request.
• Frac-site and pressure-pumping fires — iron fails under pressure, a treating line lets go, or a fuel source is left running next to a leak. Hydraulic fracturing runs at pressures that turn a fitting into shrapnel.
• Hydrogen sulfide releases — in sour fields a release can drop a worker before an explosion ever happens. Railroad Commission Rule 36 governs H2S safety planning, and whether a site was certified sour matters to what the operator knew.
• Pipeline and gathering-line ruptures — a corroded or over-pressured line, or a line struck by a contractor who never called 811.

Who is responsible when a contractor’s employee is burned?

This is the question that decides the case, and Texas answers it with a specific statute. Chapter 95 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code protects a property owner — which in the oilfield includes the operator holding the lease — from claims by a contractor’s employee injured while constructing, repairing, renovating or modifying an improvement, unless the owner exercised or retained some control over the way the work was done and had actual knowledge of the danger. Both elements must be proven. The Texas Supreme Court has applied Chapter 95 to well sites, and much of the litigation in these cases is about company-man authority, drilling contracts, and the master service agreement’s control language.

Chapter 95 does not protect everyone. Drilling contractors, well-servicing companies, pressure-pumping crews and equipment manufacturers who are not the property owner face ordinary negligence and product liability standards. A manufacturer of a failed valve, hose, treater or BOP component answers under Chapter 82 without any Chapter 95 defense at all.

Then there is the employer. If the employer carries workers’ compensation, the Labor Code bars the tort claim against it, though the family of a worker killed by gross negligence keeps an exemplary-damages claim under section 408.001(b) and the Texas Constitution. If the employer is a non-subscriber — and many South Texas service companies are — the employer can be sued directly and, under Labor Code section 406.033, loses contributory negligence, assumption of the risk and the fellow-servant defenses. We check the non-subscriber status of every employer in every case on the first day.

The evidence that decides an explosion case

Well sites are rebuilt fast. What existed the morning of the fire may not exist the following week, so the case is won or lost on what gets preserved.

• Hot-work permits, JSAs and tailgate sheets — the safety paperwork that was, or was not, filled out that morning.
• Gas detection records — personal monitor logs and fixed LEL detector data, which show whether anyone tested the atmosphere before work started.
• Well-control and BOP test records, IADC reports and driller’s logs — for blowouts and kicks.
• Pressure charts, SCADA data and treater controls — for tank battery and facility fires.
• The failed component itself — a valve, a hose, a fitting, a thief hatch. If it leaves the site before it is documented and preserved, the product claim usually leaves with it.
• The MSA and the drilling contract — the control and indemnity provisions that decide the Chapter 95 fight and which insurer is really paying.
• OSHA and Railroad Commission reports — OSHA investigates fatalities and hospitalizations; the RRC investigates blowouts and H2S releases. Both files are obtainable, and both are usually incomplete without the private investigation that follows.

Texas recognizes a duty to preserve evidence once litigation is reasonably anticipated, and a jury can be told about a company that destroyed what it should have kept. We send that preservation demand the week we are retained.

Burn injuries change every part of the calculation

A serious burn is not a single injury. It is grafting, debridement, contracture release, compression garments, and years of revision surgery, followed by the permanent loss of the ability to work in the heat. Texas law allows recovery for disfigurement and physical impairment as separate elements of damages, and for future medical care proven to a reasonable probability. A life-care planner, a burn surgeon and a vocational economist are part of every catastrophic burn case we handle, because the number that matters is the one that pays for the fortieth year, not the first.

Wrongful death after an oilfield explosion

When a worker dies, the surviving spouse, children and parents hold a wrongful-death claim under Chapter 71 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, and the estate holds a survival claim for the worker’s own pain before death. Where the employer subscribed to workers’ compensation, the family still has an exemplary-damages claim against that employer for gross negligence, and full claims against every other responsible company. The limitations period is generally two years from the death, and the evidence is gone long before that.

Where these cases arise

The Eagle Ford runs from the Mexican border through Maverick, Dimmit, La Salle, Webb, McMullen, Atascosa, Karnes, Wilson, Gonzales and DeWitt Counties, and the work that ignites happens at the well pads, tank batteries, saltwater disposal sites and gathering systems along US-57, US-83, US-281, SH-16 and SH-72. Venue usually lies in the county where the explosion occurred or where the defendant keeps its principal Texas office, and the choice between a rural county and Bexar County is a strategic decision we make with the client, not for them.

We also represent Eagle Pass and Maverick County workers on the western edge of the play, and Karnes County workers in its core.

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