Take BP, the disgraced British energy giant which has been reeling from losses after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig exploded and sank at its Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico. Yet even those losses didn’t keep BP from posting a $7.7 billion profit — not revenues, but actual profit — for the fourth quarter of 2011.Now consider that number, and let’s compare it to another high-profile business: the movie business.

USA Today recently reported that the entire James Bond series of films, as it hits its 50th birthday, has amassed total North American box office revenues — not profits, but ticket sales — of $1.6 billion in that half-century. Production, marketing and exhibition costs, when deducted, make the films’ actual profits even less.

Still, $1.6 billion looks like a lot of money in revenues. And in Hollywood terms, it is.

But in the energy business, it’s a modest amount for a three-month quarter, not 50 years. We’re talking astronomically huge profits for companies which can afford to pay the families of those who are injured or killed in their service, including workers on offshore platforms or rigs..

That doesn’t mean giant energy corporations will gladly and willingly pay what’s right after an accident injury or death to an employee. In fact, they may fight it.

And that’s why you need an experienced Jones Act lawyer or maritime injury attorney in the event you or a loved one suffers a work accident injury on an offshore rig or platform.

Has someone in your family had such an injury on an offshore rig for oil or gas extraction? If so, know that you have legal rights provided by the Jones Act, a maritime law that’s helped injured seamen and those who work on the water for over 90 years.

Notify our legal service of your difficulty, and let us help you get the money you need and deserve from energy company employers big or small. You’re not asking for billions. You’re asking for what’s right. And we’re here to get it for you.

Call us today at 1-800-566-3434 or contact us via this site’s free legal consultation form. Then you’ll be that much closer to seeking payments for your offshore work accident injury, perhaps with help from a Jones Act lawyer or maritime attorney from us.

According to economic alliance Greater New Orleans Inc., since a six-month federal moratorium on Gulf drilling was removed six months after the oil spill, federal approvals of permits for offshore drilling have fallen by about half, from six per month to three per month.
In a survey of companies, 46 per cent said they’d moved at least part of their operations from the Gulf due to the moratorium, and 49 per cent said they’d laid off workers.

But before you think the bottom has dropped out of offshore drilling, keep in mind the alliance notes that those most impacted negatively by the moratorium were more likely to provide answers for the survey.

The time needed for permit approval also has been affected by the post-oil spill moratorium, the survey found, with approval taking an average of 109 days last year in contrast to 61 days five years ago. Also, drilling plans approved dropped from 73 per cent pre-spill to 34 per cent last year.

But energy companies are still making money. According to companies responding to the survey, their average yearly revenues stand at $104.5 million, compared to $136.5 million before the spill.

Also, many workers who might have gone offshore are now working on onshore drilling rigs instead. Louisiana hasn’t lost many of its 8,500 workers for oil and gas extraction, the survey reports. They’ve just been reassigned, largely to onshore shale gas projects.

If you work on an oil or gas rig, whether it’s onshore or offshore, know that you have legal rights in the event of an accident injury on the job.

To get a legal point of view after an offshore or onshore rig accident injury, notify a personal injury lawyer with our legal service or with Gulf Coast law firm Jim S. Adler & Associates.

Depending on the circumstances of your offshore accident injury or your oil or gas rig injury, you may be legally entitled to substantial financial compensation for your accident injury losses. These can include your pain and suffering, your medical and health care costs, and the wages you lost, from now through the future, due to being unable to work after your workplace accident.

Notify a Gulf Coast offshore accident lawyer or Jones Act lawyer with our legal service today and get the help you need to size up your chances for a successful work accident injury lawsuit.

Call us at 1-800-566-3434 or send in our free consultation form, above. Then let us get started helping you and your family claim the economic recovery you need and deserve.

But BP is expected to be forced to pay much more than the $7.8 billion to settle private claims. It’s also expected to pay many billions of dollars to state and federal governments for the environmental calamity its negligence unleashed.

Claims by federal and state governments against BP concern not just civil charges but also the possibility of criminal charges. Indeed, the Clean Water Act, a national law, could precipitate enormous fines against BP for the Gulf oil spill.

How much? Combined, BP may wind up paying as much as $20 billion to the federal government and to state governments.

This monstrous disaster is hardly the first time Britain’s BP has unleashed calamities on innocent Americans. In 2005, an explosion at BP’s refinery in Texas City, Texas claimed 15 workers’ lives and hurt an additional 170 persons.

The Deepwater Horizon debacle also killed 11 oil rig workers on the doomed platform.

Over and over again, innocent Americans have lost their lives or their livelihood so a negligent British corporation could push its profits even higher, often by means of cost-cutting and deadline-pushing measures at the expense of safety.

This is clearly an injustice, and we stand ready to fight such injustices.

If you or a loved one suffers an offshore oil rig accident injury, notify an oil rig accident lawyer or  a Jones Act attorney with our legal service and get the legal help you need to claim financial compensation.

Fat-cat corporations have gotten away with far too much in recent years. Now is the time to fight back with a Jones Act lawsuit to claim justice and payments for victims.

Just what is “negligence” as it pertains to an injury lawsuit — particularly a Jones Act lawsuit?In that context, negligence is a failure to exercise such reasonable care — the care that an average and prudent individual would apply — when it comes to maritime employment. In other words, an employer, or a vessel or rig owner, owes such care to employees.

That means an owner or employer must provide a reasonably safe place for employees to work, and also must provide enough care to keep and maintain a vessel or rig in a condition that’s reasonably safe.

When such reasonable care is not provided, then the owner or employer has been negligent in this duty.

Now, what does it mean to have a safe place in which to work?

By law, that means a place where such work can be done without undue exposure to unreasonable harm or risk, provided that the worker does such work with reasonable care for his or her own safety as well.

What are some conditions on board a rig or vessel which could constitute negligence?

These negligent conditions include an incompetent crew, which is the responsibility of the employer. They also include a failure by the employer to inspect the rig or vessel and to maintain safe appliances and equipment.

Other negligent conditions include dangerous working conditions or unsafe methods of work. Too, they include failure to adhere to regulations and procedures, failure to warn workers of dangerous or hazardous conditions about which the employer is aware, and failure to maintain or repair equipment.

A negligent employee who injures another worker also is the responsibility of the employer and constitutes negligence on the part of the employer.

Now, why is negligence important in a legal sense?

An employer’s negligence, or a demonstration of such, is vital under Jones Act law since it must be shown to have contributed to an employee’s injury in some way. It need not be the sole reason, cause or basis for the injury accident, but if employer’s negligence contributed in some way — even a small way — then that is grounds for a Jones Act injury lawsuit.

There. We hope that’s helped you understand the importance of negligence when it comes to a Jones Act lawsuit for recovering damages from an employer after a work accident injury. And we hope you know this can come with help from a maritime attorney or Jones Act lawyer from our legal service, or from longtime Gulf Coast law firm Jim S. Adler & Associates.

But if you have any further questions, we’ll be glad to answer those, too. Just signal us your interest by sending the free consultation online form displayed above or by calling us toll-free by dialing 1-800-566-3434.

We can assure you this: We won’t be negligent about responding to your inquiry as quickly as we can.

Royal Dutch Shell is one of them. The Dutch energy giant, whose U.S. affiliate is based in Houston, TX, says it’s losing $1 billion per year while trying to catch up with pre-Deepwater Horizon operations.

Actually, the federal moratorium on Gulf drilling did not stop drilling by wells which were in production already. It only delayed the drilling of some new wells, and it was lifted in October of 2010. The Deepwater Horizon tragedy in BP’s Macondo field was in April of that year.

Yet Europe’s biggest oil company, Royal Dutch Shell, is pleading impoverishment. It claims its oil production in the area will be reduced by approximately 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) in 2012, just as it was last year. It also claims this amounts to $1 billion in cash flow implications.

Enormous oil corporations tend to focus fiercely on profits rather than the human factor. But the fact is, 11 offshore workers lost far more in the Deepwater Horizon disaster than any oil corporation. They lost their lives — their very existence.

At Texas-JonesActLawyer.com and the Gulf Coast law firm of Jim S. Adler & Associates, we haven’t lost sight of that crucial distinction. Human safety and human lives always should come first.

That’s why we stand up for the rights of families of injured or killed maritime workers or offshore workers in the event of a workplace accident injury. We go to bat for them by advancing an offshore accident lawsuit or maritime injury lawsuit in their behalf.

And we don’t even charge them, since we’re only paid if their case wins, and then only from their settlement, as a portion of it. They’ll never need to write a check to their Jones Act lawyer or maritime attorney.

Intrigued? Need to know more?

Excellent choice, because we have more — far more — in the form of articles on various maritime or offshore topics throughout this website. And we can offer even more help through our free legal consultation.

To get yours, notify us by means of this site’s case review form or by dialing 1-800-566-3434.

We’re ready to help you. But we can’t help you until or unless you contact us first.

So please let us hear about your offshore or maritime accident injury case. Then let us take the lead in fighting for your legal right to financial recovery by means of a maritime injury lawsuit or Jones Act lawsuit for you and your family.

A large number of such energy companies are based in Houston, TX, which is often called the Energy Capital of the World.

Among these oil rig companies involved in Gulf of Mexico drilling operations are Atwood Oceanics, the American division of BP, ConocoPhillips Company, Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc., Halliburton, Hercules Offshore, Marathon Oil Corporation, Noble Energy Inc., Scorpion Offshore Inc. and Shell.

Why does this matter?

If you live along the American Gulf Coast, perhaps in Texas or in  neighboring Louisiana, and if you suffer an offshore accident injury, then you may need to file a Jones Act lawsuit against your employer in order to receive money to compensate you for your accident injury losses.

Such a Jones Act lawsuit can be filed in state court, or it can be filed in a U.S. District Court nearest where the defendant is based. Under Jones Act law, that’s the choice of you, the injured offshore worker.

Thus, a federal court trial for your Jones Act lawsuit against a Houston-based company would be held in U.S. District Court in Houston.

It may seem daunting or even frightening to go up against a massive energy company in a lawsuit, but when the truth and the law are on your side, you shouldn’t be afraid. Also on your side can be an experienced and knowledgeable Jones Act lawyer or maritime attorney with our legal service of Texas-JonesActLawyer.com or with the Houston-based law firm of Jim S. Adler & Associates.

We can work with you — and for you — to help get you the money you need and deserve for your offshore injury accident claim.

This often can be done by applying the powers granted by the Jones Act, a 92-year-old federal maritime law which helps protect the rights of injured seamen, mariners, maritime workers or offshore workers.

How can you start this process? That’s the easiest part. Simply alert us to your situation by sending in this site’s free legal review form or by calling 1-800-566-3434. We’ll then rush to your rescue with assistance in sizing up your chances for a successful offshore injury lawsuit or Jones Act lawsuit.

Nor will you need to pay us, since we’ll only be paid from a segment of the settlement if your case prevails, and nothing if it does not.

So give us a call, and give us a chance to fight for what’s right.

You deserve to be paid for your offshore accident injury. Now get on track to get that accomplished, perhaps with help from a Texas Jones Act lawyer or offshore accident attorney. ]]> http://texas-jonesactlawyer.com/2012/02/houston-energy-companies/feed/ 0 http://texas-jonesactlawyer.com/2012/02/bp-deny-experts-deepwater-horizon-oil-spill-trial/ http://texas-jonesactlawyer.com/2012/02/bp-deny-experts-deepwater-horizon-oil-spill-trial/#comments Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:18:44 +0000 Bruce http://texas-jonesactlawyer.com/?p=1315 Again, disgraced British energy giant BP has lost a round in court. Just as a U.S. District Court judge ruled earlier that Transocean was shielded from many oil spill claims after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, the judge also has ruled that way in favor of Halliburton.

Transocean owned the Deepwater Horizon MODU (mobile offshore drilling unit) which BP leased and operated for its Macondo field well in the Gulf of Mexico. Halliburton did the cementing of the well.

On the other hand, the court also has held that Transocean and Halliburton remain exposed to punitive penalties for their part in the calamity, as well as to civil penalties laid out by the Clean Water Act.

Gulf waters were anything but clean after the 87-day oil spill. It was America’s worst oil spill in its history, disgorging 206 million gallons of crude oil. Much of it polluted waters and beaches of Gulf Coast states Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

Economic losses to coastal businesses, along with cleanup costs, are expected to total $40 billion. Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed against BP and its partners.

Meanwhile, BP also has asked the judge to exclude testimony from two experts about a disregard of safety leading to the oil spill, for which a trial is set to start Feb. 27 in New Orleans, LA.

Both sides in the trial, including the federal government, have filed motions to block experts from testifying — selectively, of course.

Yet it’s anticipated that the trial will depend heavily on experts’ testimony in order to determine a division of responsibility for the April 2010 catastrophe about 50 miles southeast of the Louisiana coast.

All this maneuvering has almost nothing to do with the biggest victims of the debacle: the 11 offshore workers who lost their lives when the offshore rig caught fire, exploded and sank.

For our legal service, such offshore workers as these mean a great deal. We fight to protect the legal rights of families of offshore workers who are injured or killed in the line of duty on a floating platform or rig.

If you need such help, notify us today by filling in our free review form, located on this page, or by phoning us at 1-800-566-3434. You need justice, which means you need a maritime attorney or Jones Act lawyer from Texas-JonesActLawyer.com or a law firm performing for over three decades on America’s Gulf Coast, Jim S. Adler & Associates. We’re here to help. We’re here for you. ]]> http://texas-jonesactlawyer.com/2012/02/bp-deny-experts-deepwater-horizon-oil-spill-trial/feed/ 0 http://texas-jonesactlawyer.com/2012/01/deepwater-horizon-oil-rig-disasters-history/ http://texas-jonesactlawyer.com/2012/01/deepwater-horizon-oil-rig-disasters-history/#comments Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:00:39 +0000 Bruce http://texas-jonesactlawyer.com/?p=1309 You may think the Deepwater Horizon explosion and fire in 2010 was the worst in U.S. history, perhaps because it killed 11 offshore workers and unleashed the worst oil spill in our history. But if so, you’d be wrong. In terms of human life, worse oil rig disasters have happened on the world’s waters. 

In the fall of 2007, the Usumacinta jack-up rig in the Gulf of Mexico collided with an adjacent platform in storm-force winds, rupturing the platform’s production tree and sparking a fire and an emergency evacuation. Twenty-two offshore workers died in the disaster — exactly twice the number of fatalities in the Deepwater Horizon tragedy.In 2005, the Mumbai (Bombay) High North platform was destroyed after a support vessel collided with it, also killing 22 workers. And in 1964 the C.P. Baker drilling barge caught fire in the Gulf of Mexico, leaving 21 workers dead.

In 1984, the Enchova Central platform off the coast of Brazil had a blowout costing 42 workers their lives. In 1986, the Brent Field Chinook helicopter shuttle crashed in the North Sea on the way back to land from an offshore field, killing 45 persons.

In 1979, the Bohai 2 jack-up rig sank during a storm while it was being towed to another location near the Chinese coast, killing 72. In 1983, the Glomar Java Sea drillship capsized and sank during a typhoon, killing all 81 persons on board.

In 1982, the Ocean Ranger semi-submersible was about 160 miles off the coast of Newfoundland when, in a storm, it sank, killing all 84 crew members. In 1989, the Seacrest drillship capsized in the midst of a typhoon in the South China Sea, taking the lives of 91 of the 97 on board.

In 1980, the Alexander L. Kielland semi-submersible capsized in a storm off the coast of Norway, killing 123 workers.

But the worst offshore rig calamity in terms of fatalities was the 1988 explosion and fire on the Piper Alpha platform while it was 120 miles off the coast of Scotland. A total of 167 persons died, although 62 workers survived.

In these 11 accidents, almost 800 workers perished. Clearly, offshore work on jack-up rigs, semi-submersibles, drillships and other rigs and platforms can be hazardous.

Yet offshore accidents can be avoidable if they occur as a result of negligence by the owner, operator or employer in charge. In such cases for American offshore workers, surviving workers or their families have a legal right to seek financial recovery for their injury losses.

At Texas-JonesActLawyer.com, we can help. We can provide you with a skilled and experienced maritime attorney or Jones Act lawyer to handle your case and seek the money you deserve and need for your offshore accident injury.

Call us now at 1-800-566-3434 and let us help you get started with your offshore accident injury case. Or let us know of your situation by sending us this site’s free legal consultation form, indicated above. Then get the knowledgeable maritime legal help you need to get the money you deserve. Get a Jones Act lawyer.

Transocean owned the rig, which it leased to BP, owner of the Macondo field well. When the Deepwater Horizon caught fire, exploded and sank in April of 2010, it began spewing oil in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana.

Before the well could be capped — which took 87 days — 200 million gallons of oil had flowed into Gulf waters. Much of it had devastating impacts on the environment and coastal businesses of such states as Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida.

As a result, many lawsuits have been filed for billions of dollars in damages.

U.S. District Court Judge Carl Barbier said in his New Orleans court that Transocean’s contract with BP shielded the rig owner from many pollution claims. But Barbier said Transocean still could pay civil penalties and punitive damages, according to the Associated Press.

Meanwhile, BP is reportedly attempting to reach agreements with the federal government and the states affected. BP also is trying to reach agreements concerning hundreds of oil spill lawsuits before such lawsuits come to trial.

Though Transocean appeared to get a break in Barbier’s ruling Thursday, BP claims otherwise, saying the rig owner still faces punitive damages, fines and penalties “flowing from its own conduct.”

Transocean officials say otherwise, asserting that the ruling “confirms” that BP bears responsibility for oil spill damages.

Federal officials blame both BP and Transocean, as well as Halliburton, which cemented the well. Though they say BP has ultimate responsibility for the spill, they find fault in all three companies to some extent.

Such discourse about the oil spill overlooks the fact that 11 offshore workers lost more than anyone in the catastrophe. They lost their lives.

They’d trusted their employer to provide them with a safe place in which to work, but that clearly did not happen.

In the sad event that someone in your family falls victim to an offshore accident injury or death on a drilling rig or platform, rest assured that you can find legal help from longtime Gulf Coast law firm Jim S. Adler & Associates, or through our legal service of Texas-JonesActLawyer.com.

Simply submit our free consultation form or call us at 1-800-566-1144 and we’ll hurriedly reply to help you determine your prospects for a successful offshore accident lawsuit, perhaps by applying the long-standing federal maritime statute the Jones Act.

Your family could be legally entitled to substantial financial compensation. Give us a call or a click and let us help you find out.

Though the first such sale proposed for the Macondo field since that disaster, it’s the second sale of Gulf oil and gas leases since then. An earlier sale focused on western Gulf areas.The proposed sale for June 20 was announced by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management as part of President Obama’s energy initiatives declared at this week’s State of the Union address to Congress.

Up for sale would be leases for 38 million acres ranging from three to 230 miles off the coast of Gulf Coast states. These leases would involve wells drilling up to 11,000 feet below the ocean floor.

The bureau, or BOEM, believes the leases could provide 4 trillion cubic feet of gas and a billion barrels of crude oil.

With such substantial lease sales pending and drilling already resuming or ramping up in the Gulf of Mexico after the moratorium on drilling following Deepwater Horizon, many offshore workers in Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida can anticipate new jobs on new rigs for oil and natural gas extraction.

But such jobs may come with a high price, given the frequency of work accident injuries and even deaths on floating offshore rigs and platforms. More than 100 Americans die on offshore or land-based rigs each year, and many more than that are injured.

Offshore workers who fall victim to an accident injury through no fault of their own have a legal right to pursue financial compensation for their losses, ranging from their medical costs to their lapsed wages while they cannot work to the suffering and pain endured by them and their families as a consequence of the injury.

Such compensation can be sought from an employer or owner of an offshore rig whose negligence contributed to the workplace accident.

To gain such economic recovery, offshore workers can seek an experienced offshore accident attorney or Jones Act lawyer to handle their case, perhaps by applying the 92-year-old federal statute known as the Jones Act. This maritime law protects the rights of injured seamen and other workers upon water in the event of an injury on the job, or even in transit to or from a job.

To learn more, get a free legal consultation from our service of Texas-JonesActLawyer.com, or via  veteran Gulf Coast law firm Jim S. Adler & Associates. We fight for the rights of injured offshore or maritime workers in the event of maritime accident injury, and assist their families in such a case in the event of death on the job.

To begin, phone 1-800-566-3434 or notify us of your situation by using the case review online form above. We will speedily reply to assist you with your claim for a potential maritime injury or Jones Act lawsuit. ]]> http://texas-jonesactlawyer.com/2012/01/feds-push-oil-gas-offshore-drilling-leases-in-gulf/feed/ 0