News

Maritime and Jones Act Workers Claims

• Texas Maritime Lawyers Closely Watch the Fifth Circuit Panel Today
  Jul 08, 2010

  Panel members of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear the Justice Department's appeal today concerning their attempts to delay U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman's decision last month to overturn a six-month deepwater drilling moratorium.  Despite Judge Feldman's striking down of Obama's deepwater drilling moratorium for its failure to prove that economic damage inflicted upon the drilling industry was worth the imagined safety problems of uninterrupted exploration, the government continues to talk about instituting its second moratorium.

   

  The government claims, in part that Judge Feldman was wrong to substitute his judgment for that of the Interior Department.  The logic leading to the moratorium however is inherently flawed.  It does not automatically follow that just because BP's Macondo well blew out that suddenly every other deepwater drilling operation is about to burst.  Putting a big fat moratorium on BP might be fair, but why penalize the hard-working offshore crewmembers, local businesses supporting the drilling industry and all of their families?

   

  The three-judge panel in New Orleans will hear arguments Thursday from lawyers on both sides of a lawsuit filed by companies that oppose the Obama administration's temporary offshore drilling ban. The case, however is not being heard on an expedited basis.  The panel's decision, therefore, could take months which will feel like forever to Gulf Coast residents already being affected by the oil spill.

   

  The Interior Department halted new permits for deepwater projects and suspended drilling on 33 exploratory wells to protect the Gulf of Mexico from another environmental disaster while it studies the risks of deepwater drilling.  However, much of the American public is in strong opposition to banning all deepwater drilling because of BP's safety mistakes.  The harm caused by the deepwater drilling moratorium is already extensive and will only continue to cause pain to an already ravaged Gulf Coast.  All the moratorium has done so far is force Americans out of work and send our oil business packing for overseas markets.

   

  The government is asking the 5th Circuit panel for an order that would keep the moratorium in place while they appeal last month's ruling.

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• Two Fishermen Killed in Barge Accident in Tennessee
  Jun 25, 2010

  Investigations are going on into a barge accident in Tennessee this week that killed two fishermen. The two men were in a 16-foot motor boat that was T-boned by nine barges on the Tennessee River.

  There were three men on the boat, and only one of them survived the accident. According to the survivor, they had been fishing on Saturday evening they came across a tug pulling nine barges. Just then, the engine of the fishing boat stalled. The fishermen did all they could to get the engine going again, but were not successful. They even tried to paddle their way out of harm's way.  They yelled and screamed trying to get the attention of anyone on the boat to alert them to their condition.

  But there was no escaping what came next. The barges rammed into the fishing boat, trapping the three men underneath. Only one of them was able to crawl his way out and back to the surface. The other two were not as lucky.

  The US Coast Guard is investigating the accident. The agency is specifically looking at whether the barge operator could have done anything to prevent this accident. Coast Guard investigators are looking at each barge, and combing through debris to look for clues. They are also interviewing the tugboat crew. The crew members say they never saw the fishing boat. The surviving fisherman insists that the operators never blew a horn to warn the fishing boat of danger. Operators are required to blow a horn to warn others of an impending collision. For now, the tug crew members are sticking to their version of events - they never saw any fishing boat.

  We will have to wait till the Coast Guard completes its investigation to find out what exactly happened here. In the meantime, our deepest condolences go out to the families of the two men here.

  The maritime lawyers at Schechter McElwee Shaffer & Harris represent injured barge tugboat operators, fishing vessel crew members, cruise liner crew members, offshore and oil rig workers and other maritime workers in maritime accidents off the Coast of Texas and worldwide.

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• BP Set to Burn Oil Gushing From Deepwater Horizon Macondo Well
  Jun 16, 2010

  BP began burning oil siphoned from its ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico early Wednesday.  BP told the media that oil and gas from its leaking well first reached a semi-submersible drilling rig on the ocean surface around 1 a.m.  This after BP suffered a setback on Tuesday when lightning struck the Discovery Enterprise, the ship which is capturing the oil from the blown-out well.  You can see a photo of the fire the lightining caused on this web site.

   

  Once that gas reaches the rig, it will be mixed with compressed air, shot down a specialized boom made by Schlumberger Ltd. and ignited at sea. It's the first time this particular burner has been deployed in the Gulf of Mexico.  This is a new method allowing BP to burn rather than simply collect the oil it is able to capture.

   

  BP officials previously said they believed the burner system could incinerate anywhere from 210,000 gallons of oil to 420,000 gallons of oil daily once it's fully operational.

   

  Under pressure from the Coast Guard, the energy firm is attempting to expand its ability to trap leaking oil before it reaches the water.  The "collect and burn" approach is BP's second system it has put in place to collect oil that is spewing into the Gulf of Mexico.  This second system is attached to the Macondo well's failed blowout preventer.  Already, oil and gas are being siphoned from a containment cap sitting over the well head and flowing to a drill ship sitting above it in the Gulf of Mexico.

   

  Adding the burner is part of BP's plan to expand its containment system so it can capture as much as 2.2 million gallons of oil a day by late June, or nearly 90 percent of what a team of government scientists have estimated is the maximum flow out the well.

   

  SMSH Partner Matthew Shaffer, represents three injured survivors and the family of one of 11 workers who died in the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion.

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• Matthew Shaffer Texas Maritime Attorney, Super Lawyer 5th Year
  Jun 09, 2010

  Matthew Shaffer, Schechter, McElwee, Shaffer & Harris, L.L.P. maritime partner, has been nominated by his fellow Texas attorneys to be a 2010 Texas Super Lawyer for the fifth straight year. Only five percent of Texas attorneys are named to this list.

  June 9, 2010 -- Matthew Shaffer, Schechter, McElwee, Shaffer & Harris, L.L.P. maritime partner, has been nominated by his fellow Texas attorneys to be a 2010 Texas Super Lawyer for the fifth straight year. Only five percent of Texas attorneys are named to this list. Mr. Shaffer was also selected as one of H Texas Magazine's Top Lawyers of 2010. He has received this honor for multiple consecutive years. Mr. Shaffer is one of a very few lawyers in Texas who has achieved Board Certification in Personal Injury Trial Law. He has been a board certified trial lawyer since 1998.

   

   

   

  Just last year, Mr. Shaffer assisted his clients in obtaining a very large multi-million dollar confidential settlement in what has been described as the largest single-incident Jones Act recovery in history. This year, he is proud to represent several parties involved in the BP Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig explosion. He has been retained by employees of multiple companies to represent them in their claims for personal injuries sustained as a result of the blowout preventer failure and subsequent explosion of the Deepwater Horizon. He has also been retained by the family of a deceased offshore worker to assist them with their oil rig explosion wrongful death claim.

  In his time away from the office, Mr. Shaffer served from 2000-2006 on the Texas State Bar Grievance Committee, helping to maintain and raise the ethical standards for Texas lawyers. He has also been interviewed by numerous broadcast and print journalists as an expert in maritime law, most recently regarding Transocean and BP.

  As one of the oldest and most experienced maritime law firms in the world, Schechter, McElwee, Shaffer & Harris, L.L.P. has a reputation for giving clients and their families consistent, caring support during the pendency of their injury and death claims. The offshore injury lawyers of SMSH have represented thousands of seamen and other offshore workers who have been victims of maritime personal injury. Matthew Shaffer is licensed to practice law in Texas and Colorado, and has handled maritime injury cases all over the world for over 20 years. Mr. Shaffer can be reached at 713-524-3500 or by visiting smslegal.com, or via Twitter and Facebook.

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• BP Press Briefing in Houston, Texas: Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Response
  May 10, 2010

  BP will hold a press briefing today to provide an update on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill response. It will be held at 12:00 p.m. CDT in Houston, TX. The speaker will be BP Senior Executive Vice-President Kent Wells. Media interested in attending should email: deepwaterhorizonresponse@hotmail.com.

  WHAT: BP to hold a technical briefing and update on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill response. This is a pen and paper briefing only. No video or still cameras allowed in the briefing.

  WHEN: Monday, May 10, 2010. 12:00 p.m. CDT   Please be in main reception at 11.45am.

  WHERE: BP, 200 Westlake Park Blvd, Houston, TX 77079. 

  WHO: BP senior executive vice-president Kent Wells

  Media interested in attending should call 281-366-6965.

  The call-in number for press unable to attend is (877) 341-5824. International callers use (706) 758-0885. The conference code is 74753304.

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• Matt Shaffer Quoted in The Times of London: Oil Rig Explosion Lawyers
  May 10, 2010

  In pertinent part taken from the article online here:
  
  

  A few days after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico, survivors started getting unsolicited telephone calls. On the other end of the line was a friendly voice from a firm called Shuman Consulting. According to lawyers acting for several of the workers, it described itself as an “independent” agency working on behalf of Transocean, owner of the rig.

  They were calling with an offer: $5,000 (£3,400) to cover “personal effects” lost in the burnt-out wreck lying nearly a mile beneath the waves. All the workers had to do was sign a form in the presence of a notary releasing Transocean of claims “solely limited to ... belongings and effects”.

  For Matt Shaffer, a lawyer representing several Transocean employees, the calls set off alarms bells. Shuman’s job, he said, was to “get to these guys first” and try to keep payouts to a minimum.

  “We are advising workers not to sign anything until they speak with a lawyer,” Shaffer said. “These guys have teams of lawyers and professionals. Workers are on their own.” It emerged this weekend that Bruce Shuman, previously the director of claims management at Transocean, is a princaple Shuman Consulting.
  
  Read more about Shuman Consulting and the Transocean and BP Explosion on our web site.

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• Deepwater Horizon Explosion: Errors by BP, Transocean, Halliburton
  May 09, 2010

  News sources report that proper procedures were not followed in the hours and days before the Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico.
  
  The attorney for a witness to April 20 Gulf Coast Oil Rig Explosion says BP and the owner of the drilling platform, Transocean Ltd., started to remove a mud barrier before a final cement plug was installed, a move industry experts say weakens control of the well in an emergency.  In the case of the Deepwater Horizon, a lawyer for a rig worker who survived the explosions, said the mud was being extracted from the riser before the top cement cap was in place, and a statement by cementing contractor Halliburton confirmed the top cap was not installed.  The witness saw mud being pumped out of the riser and onto boats that normally collect the mud in tanks. Another lawyer, who represents fishermen who witnessed the explosion and saw the mud being extracted beforehand.
  
  When the explosion occurred, BP was attempting to seal off an exploratory well. The company had succeeded in tapping into a reservoir of oil, and it was capping the well so it could leave and set up more permanent operations to extract.  In order to properly cap a well, drillers rely on three lines of defense to protect themselves from an explosive blowout: a column of heavy mud in the well itself and in the drilling riser that runs up to the rig; at least two cement plugs that fit in the well with a column of mud between them; and a blowout preventer that is supposed to seal the well if the mud and plugs all fail.

  If all of the mud had still been present, it would have helped push back against the gas burping up toward the rig, though it might not have held it back indefinitely.  When the gas got to the sea floor, the third defense - the blowout preventer -- also failed, and it has continued to fail for weeks as unmanned submarines have tried to get it to engage.
  
  But Halliburton said in a statement that it had completed pouring cement that lines the well 20 hours before the blowout. After that cement lining is done, the federal Minerals Management Service requires at least two prefabricated cement plugs to be placed at the bottom of the well and farther up, with mud packed in between. Halliburton's official statement shows there was still one more cement plug to be inserted.
  
  "Well operations had not yet reached the point requiring the placement of the final cement plug which would enable the planned temporary abandonment of the well, consistent with normal oilfield practice," the Halliburton statement said.
  
  Crew members were caught off-guard by a gas-bubble kick that spewed watered-down mud and an invisible plume of heavy gas onto the rig, igniting a fiery explosion that killed 11 crew members and doomed the rig.
  
  Blowouts are not unprecedented, and are often caused by cementing failures. An MMS study found that half of 39 blowouts on offshore rigs from 1992 to 2006 were related to cement problems.
  
  Even with the problems with cement seals and the weakening of the mud barrier, the blowout preventer, or BOP, a contraption built by Cameron International, still could have blocked the oil gusher. Unfortunately, those devices, too, have had documented troubles.
  
  To read the full article click here.

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• Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Update: Vessel Restriction, Drilling Hold
  Apr 30, 2010

  Big changes are taking place in the oil drilling industry as a result of the Transocean oil rig explosion early last week.  The White House put a hold on any new offshore oil projects until the rig disaster that caused the spill is explained.  A comprehensive oil well intervention and spill-response plan is underway following theTransocean Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion and subsequent sinking 130 miles southeast of New Orleans.  Nearly 2,000 personnel are involved in the response effort with additional resources being mobilized as needed.

  Incident Facts:

  • More than 217,000 feet of boom (barrier) has been assigned to contain the spill. An additional 305,760 feet is available.
  • To date, the oil spill response team has recovered 20,313 barrels (853,146 gallons) of an oil-water mix. Vessels are in place and continuing recovery operations.
  • 75 response vessels are being used including skimmers, tugs, barges and recovery vessels.
  • 139,459 gallons of dispersant have been deployed and an additional 51,000 gallons are available.
  • Five staging areas are in place and ready to protect sensitive shorelines. These areas include: Biloxi, Miss., Pensacola, Fla. Venice, La., Pascagoula, Miss., and Theodore, Ala.
  • A sixth staging area is being set up in Port Sulphur, La.

  126 people were on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig when the incident occurred. 11 remain unaccounted for; 17 were injured, 3 of them critically. 1 injured person remains in the hospital.

  The U.S. imposed its first restrictions on shipping into the Mississippi River, the most important North American waterway, as the massive BP Plc oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico moves closer to land.

  Ships were ordered by the Coast Guard to slow down in three of the four lanes connecting to the river to prevent damage to vessels and injuries to workers maintaining a boomed-off safety area around the oil spill, according to a bulletin issued by the Coast Guard yesterday. Traffic through the main deepwater channel, the Southwest Pass, is not restricted.

  A 500-meter (1,640-foot) security zone around the spill area is in place for the next three days, according to the Coast Guard. The oil is about three miles (4.8 kilometers) from the nearest point of land.

  “It is our goal to not allow the disruption of traffic on the Mississippi River,” U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry said today at a press conference. “We cannot disrupt maritime commerce.”

  The boomed-off safety area is in the vicinity of the river’s three entrances, the South Pass, the Southeast Pass and the Pass a Loutre, the bulletin showed. Vessels going through the area should move “at a slow bell to assist in maintaining a no wake zone,” according to the bulletin.

  The Coast Guard said today the damaged BP oil well is leaking about 5,000 barrels a day, five times more than previously estimated.  Vessels going through the oil spill can further disperse and expand the slick, and oil is flammable and is thus dangerous to navigate through.

  To combat the spill, two Air Force C-130s were sent to Mississippi and awaited orders to start dumping chemicals on the oil spill.  The oil slick could soon become the nation's worst environmental disaster in decades, threatening to become the worst oil spill in our nation's history, even worst than the Exxon Valdez, the grounded tanker that leaked 11 million gallons in Alaska's Prince William Sound in 1989. The sheen imperils hundreds of species of fish, birds and other wildlife along the Gulf Coast, one of the world's richest seafood grounds, teeming with shrimp, oysters and other marine life.  Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency so officials could begin preparing for the oil's impact. He also asked the federal government if he could call up 6,000 National Guard troops to help.
  
  To report oiled or injured wildlife, please call 1-800-557-1401.

  To discuss spill related damage claims, please call 1-800-440-0858.

  To report oil on land, or for general Community and Volunteer Information, please call 1-866-448-5816.

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• Cameron International Gave Blowout Gear to Transocean Rig That Sank
  Apr 29, 2010

  Cameron International Corporation the second-largest United States maker of oilfield equipment, provided the blowout preventer for the Transocean Ltd. rig in the Gulf of Mexico that caught fire and sank last week.

  Cameron's gear has been used on the Deepwater Horizon rig, which was built in 2001 to operate in seas as deep as 8,000 feet, since the vessel was commissioned, company spokesman Scott Amann said today. The rig caught fire after an April 20, 2010 explosion that may have been caused by a blowout, an unexpected surge in pressure that ejected petroleum at the top of the well, Transocean said.

  Eleven crew members were killed, making the blast the most deadly offshore rig explosion since 1968.  BP Plc, the London- based oil producer that leased the Deepwater Horizon from Transocean, is spending $6 million a day trying to clean up an oil spill from the well and stop a leak that is gushing crude from the seabed at a rate of about 1,000 barrels a day. The cause of the offshore oil rig explosion remains under investigation.

  Amann declined to comment on Houston-based Cameron's potential liability, saying the company will wait to learn what might have caused the blast. "We are not going to speculate on what the causes might have been," he said.

  Cameron makes a hydraulically operated system of safety valves that prevent increases in pressure from causing blowouts. The preventers used on the Deepwater Horizon are designed to withstand 15,000 pounds of pressure per square inch, according to Transocean's Web site. That's enough pressure to crush a pickup truck.

  Oil and natural-gas producers are accelerating exploration in waters deeper than 1,000 feet to tap new sources of reserves. The threat of pressure surges, or blowouts, that can smash steel equipment and create gushing columns of fire increases as drillers probe deeper.

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• Smith Employees Missing in Transocean Oil Rig Explosion
  Apr 24, 2010

  Smith International has confirmed that two employees of its M-I Swaco venture are among the 11 missing crew members after the explosion and sinking of the Transocean semi-submersible rig Deepwater Horizon.  Transocean has said the other nine missing crew from the Transocean explosion are members of its staff.

  Smith said there were five M-I Swaco employees on board the rig at the time of the Gulf of Mexico oil rig explosion and three returned safely.  Houston-based M-I Swaco is jointly owned Smith International (60%) and French services giant Schlumberger (40%).

  "We are deeply saddened by this tragic event. Our thoughts and prayers are with our colleagues and the loved ones of those affected," Smith boss John Yearwood said in a release.

  Both the Coast Guard and Transocean have said that the hopes of finding the remaining missing crew alive are slim.

  Although the cause of the Transocean explosion is unknown at this time, Transocean officials have confirmed that the semi-submersible explosion did involve a blowout on the MODU.  They have said that abnormal pressure must have accumulated inside the marine riser, and as it came up it expanded rapidly and ignited.

  A federal oil rig explosion lawsuit was filed by the family of Shane Roshto Wednesday in Louisiana.  Roshto is one of the 11 missing seamen and his Deepwater Horizon lawsuit claims negligence by both BP and Transocean.

  The Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling vessel was built in 2001 by Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan, South Korea.  It is a Reading & Bates Falcon RBS-8D design rig with accommodations for up to 130 people.  The dynamically-positioned Deepwater Horizon can operate in waters up to 10,000 feet and can drill to 30,000 feet.

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Arthur L. Schechter, Matthew D. Shaffer and Jonathan S. Harris are Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

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