Who’s Liable for an Oil Rig Injury?

Posted in Oil Industry,Oil Refinery Law,Oil Rig Injury on October 31, 2016

Just a few years ago, for the first time ever, the United States became a net oil exporting country, meaning that we now produce more oil than we can consume.

Naturally, this means that there are far more oil rigs, fields, and refineries than their used to be, and for a job field as inherently dangerous as oil production, it also means that the potential for danger has increased as well.

Luckily, there are far more rules and regulations that those in the oil industry must follow, which generally means that the working conditions are getting increasingly safe year-on-year. Increased regulation is a bit of a double-edged sword, though, while the safety standard is higher than ever, the costs associated with maintaining that standard are also higher.

Cost is a four-letter word (both figuratively and literally) for businesses, unfortunately, and any time a company has an opportunity to save money, they are bound to take it. Sometimes this takes the form of cutting corners, and sometimes those cut corners lead to injury or catastrophic failures.

The somewhat recent disaster with the Deep Sea Horizon drilling platform is a shining example of what can happen when things go horribly wrong. It’s often a snowball effect, with one small failure turning into a disaster of massive proportions. Determining who is at fault for large disasters such as that is an immensely complex process. There are workers involved, foremen overseeing the worker, maintenance crew, safety inspectors, executives signing off on business decisions, manufacturers of equipment required to meet their own safety tolerances, etc. It’s an extremely extensive investigative process to find who is at fault.

Determining fault for a personal injury on an oil rig if generally a much simpler process. Everyone is human, so even though there are clear-cut rules for operation on the rig, mistakes will be made and shortcuts will be taken. When someone gets injured, the fault is usually trackable. With a bit of work by a trained investigator, the injured party should be able to get some resolution, and the responsible party can be held accountable.

If you or a loved one suffered an injury on an oil rig, get in touch with an attorney today. You may have legal options.