An investigation by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement says that a number of violations and deficiencies contributed to the fire on an offshore platform off the coast of Louisiana last year.  According to the investigation, one of the reasons for the fire was the collapse of a tube inside a piece of equipment that ...

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One of the factors that ultimately contributed to the deadly Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion last year was the lack of adequate inspection and oversight by the federal administration.  Currently, lone inspectors are sent for inspections of oil rigs.  That could soon change, with the federal administration announcing that from now on, teams o...

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An important piece of offshore safety legislation that would have clearly defined how drilling safety plans in US waters should progress, is currently left hanging after lawmakers disagreed over revenue sharing payments to states.  The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee was debating legislation that would enhance offshore drilling sa...

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The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement has been strongly focused on increasing offshore worker safety and preventing accidents like the Gulf of Mexico BP explosion last year.  The agency has had its work cut out for it, as it struggles to deal with years of ineptitude, negligence and inappropriate relationships between...

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From commercial fishing vessel crew members to offshore oil rig workers, all kinds of maritime workers may be at risk of head and brain injuries.  These are some of the most serious injuries, and can leave a person with long lifelong consequences.  A new study confirms yet another one of those long-term effects of a brain injury.  The study sugg...

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A worker on an offshore platform in the Gulf Of Mexico had to be airlifted after he suffered injuries in an accident.  According to the Coast Guard, the man was injured on a platform located about 55 miles southwest of Marsh Island. Crewmembers contacted the Coast Guard Sector New Orleans to alert them that a man on board had suffered serious f...

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A crane collapsed while loading equipment onto a work boat, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement report.  On Tuesday, August 16, 2011, the boom hoist cable failed, killing one worker on the site in the Gulf of Mexico.  The platform, owned by Energy Resource Technology, is now the site of an investigation...

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The man killed in an offshore crane accident on Tuesday has been identified as  20-year-old Brandon Noland.  The Katy resident died at the platform where he was working that morning after a crane collapsed and hit him.  The autopsy released by the medical examiner's office stated that he died of blunt-force trauma from a crushing injury. By fol...

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Four people have been confirmed dead in an offshore helicopter crash off the coast of Brazil.  The helicopter had just taken off from a drilling platform located in the Atlantic Ocean when it crashed killing a pilot, co-pilot and two subcontractors. The platform was operated by Brazilian company, Petrobras.  According to news accounts, the pilo...

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Four people have been confirmed dead in an offshore helicopter crash off the coast of Brazil.  The helicopter had just taken off from a drilling platform located in the Atlantic Ocean when it crashed killing a pilot, co-pilot and two subcontractors.  The platform was operated by Brazilian company, Petrobras.  According to news accounts, the pil...

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In the future, offshore oil rigs may be safer because pipes are manufactured with safer materials, thanks to research at the Massachusetts Institute Of Technology who are currently using car crash test software to predict pipe fractures. Offshore drilling pipes may be subjected to extreme pressure as they travel deep into the ocean, and require...

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A judge has handed plaintiffs, who sustained losses during the BP oil rig explosion last year, a huge victory.  He has ruled that BP can indeed be sued for punitive damages.  According to Judge Carl Barbier plaintiffs are allowed under maritime law to make a claim for punitive damages. BP, Transocean and other defendants have insisted that puni...

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Royal Dutch Shell is trying to defend its offshore safety record, after attacks by environmental safety groups over a leak from a Shell platform in the North Sea. Shell has confirmed that it has managed to plug the leak from its Gannet Alpha platform, which is located just 112 miles off Aberdeen, Scotland. The leak resulted in more than 200 ton...

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Six oil workers were rescued after they were stranded for three days post Tropical Storm Nate in the Gulf of Mexico. The seventh worker, who had been rescued, died in the hospital. Out of the ten workers who were stranded in the Gulf of Mexico, two died and their bodies have been recovered. Search efforts for a missing crewmember are still on. ...

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A Hercules Offshore liftboat that was struck by several waterspouts capsized in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana on Friday evening. Five crewmembers aboard the Starfish vessel were evacuated and rescued at sea shortly after the capsizing. They were treated for minor injuries at hospital in Houma, Louisiana, and released. The vessel, a 140-clas...

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The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement has laid much of the blame for the Gulf of Mexico oil explosion last year on BP. However, Transocean, the owner of the rig, and Halliburton, which did much of the cementing work on the vessel, have not been spared blame either. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation an...

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The world's first clinical trial into the use of embryonic stem cells to treat spinal cord injury is continuing in California. Last week, another patient, the first from California, enlisted in the trial. This person has been paralyzed waist down, and is currently undergoing stem cell injection therapy at the Santa Clara Medical Valley Center. ...

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The US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board is conducting an investigation into the BP explosion and oil spill last year. The investigation is being conducted at the request of Congress. The investigation is still on, but according to the New York Times, the board has found that lax federal offshore safety regulatory standards were re...

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The Air Accident Investigations Branch has completed its investigation into an offshore helicopter crash in the North Sea in March 2009 that killed 16 people, including 14 offshore workers and 2 pilots. The report blames the accident on the failure to identify a potential problem in the gearbox just one week before the crash. According to the r...

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A bill introduced in the US House of Representatives would require rescue boats to be stationed within three nautical miles of offshore oil and gas drilling rigs.  The measure has been sponsored by Louisiana Rep. Jeff Landry, R-New Iberia. According to him, the proposal aims to find a common sense approach to the safety problems facing the offs...

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Chevron Corp. officials said 2 workers were missing after a rig off Nigeria’s coast caught fire Monday. The company said that 152 workers had been found, but officials were still accounting for all those working on the offshore rig, which was exploring possible deep-water oil and gas fields. The cause of the fire was still under investigation,...

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Canada's offshore drilling industry expects to see limited growth over the next year, because of a shortage of qualified and skilled oil workers. According to the Canadian Association of Oil Well Drilling Contractors, the shortage of experienced workers is a major impediment to the expansion of drilling activities.  The Association says that it...

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A scientific panel is recommending that U.S. offshore drilling companies take a more systematic approach to offshore safety in order to prevent a disaster like the BP oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico last year.  The recommendations were made by the National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. In a new report, the two ag...

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A worker on an oil rig owned by Brazil's national oil and gas agency has been killed in a fall accident. According to Brazilian state-controlled Petrobras, the accident occurred last week on the PUB-03 oil rig, which is located in the Rio Grande do Norte in the northeastern part of the country. The worker and two of his colleagues fell on the d...

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All crew members on an offshore oil platform operated by Petroleos Mexicano have been evacuated after a fire raged through the platform last week. There were approximately 213 workers on the KU-S platform in the Ku Maloob Zaap field in the Bay of Campeche. This is Mexico's largest oil producing field, and for several years now has been a source...

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BP’s safety record is not exactly a secret to the maritime law lawyers at our firm. However, the company’s less-than-stellar record will not be admitted into court during the Deepwater Horizon trial.  The trial will apportion blame for the oil explosion in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010, which killed 11 workers. But, the court has disallowed ...

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Ever since the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, maritime law attorneys have found Transocean and BP battling over liability and damages. A judge has ruled that Transocean, the owner of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, does not have to pay any compensatory damages arising out of the marine pollution that resulted after the disaste...

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Offshore oil industry workers in Canada now have access to greater and more improved helicopter crash survival training. The Marine Institute has announced newly improved facilities for workers in the country's offshore industry. The Offshore Safety and Survival Center located in Foxtrap, Canada has invested in new survival equipment that is me...

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There are a number of dangers that an offshore oil rig worker is exposed to, and one of these is the risk that a worker faces every time he takes a helicopter flight to or from an oil rig or platform. Offshore oil workers make frequent trips between shore and land, and these trips are not without their dangers. Last week, nine passengers on an ...

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An oil platform operated by Royal Dutch Shell in the North Sea has been partially evacuated after detection of a gas leak. There were a total of 76 crew members on the Gannett Alpha platform operated by Shell in the North Sea. Out of these, 48 members were evacuated, and returned to shore by helicopter. According to Shell, the problem came to l...

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