Oilfield Catastrophic Injuries
N/AOUTCOME: Settlement In Excess of $15 Million Dollars
Frank Lamothe, in association with the Jack Bailey Law Firm, recently concluded a case involving a high pressure gas release in an oil and gas field in North Louisiana. A workover crew hired as an i ... ndependent contractor was preparing to extract the tubing from a production well and in doing so was removing tubing hangar pins to release the tubing from the tubing hanger, when there was a sudden and powerful gas release which caused catastrophic injuries to three crew members. It was discovered that a valve removal plug was installed in the casing valve, which prevented the casing valve pressure gauge from reflecting the actual pressure present in the casing. The valve removal plug had been installed by a prior owner of the field, who forgot to remove it following adjacent drilling operations. The prior owner of the field had also recorded the installation of the VR plug in the wrong well file. An employee of the new owner of the field was overseeing the workover crew. The defendants contended that the third party workover crew had failed to follow proper procedures by failing to pump into the casing to determine if there was any pressure as well as failing to install a blowout preventer stack on the wellhead prior to backing out the tubing hanger pins. Mr. Lamothe took the lead in establishing the liability case, which involved the production of over 300,000 documents, and taking numerous depositions as well as working with expert petroleum engineers. Mr. Lamothe has an in depth knowledge of oilfield technology, which he was able to utilize in establishing the liability claim against multiple defendants. Mr. Lamothe was also instrumental in hiring all the damage witnesses who were able to document the serious injuries of the injured parties.
