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Corpus Christi Oil Accident Attorneys Helping Injured Workers
The Coastal Bend runs on energy. Refineries, petrochemical plants, export terminals, pipelines, and drilling operations across Corpus Christi and South Texas employ thousands of workers who face serious hazards every shift. When a company cuts corners on safety, the people doing the work are the ones who pay for it.
An oilfield or refinery accident is rarely an ordinary workplace injury. Explosions, blowouts, equipment failures, confined space incidents, chemical exposures, and high-pressure releases can leave a worker with catastrophic injuries in seconds. At Perkins & Perkins, we represent people hurt in oilfield, refinery, pipeline, and industrial accidents throughout Corpus Christi and South Texas. We investigate what happened, identify every company that shares responsibility, and pursue the full compensation you are owed under Texas law.
Your Legal Options After an Oilfield Accident
You may have a case if your injury was caused by unsafe conditions, defective equipment, poor training, negligent contractors, or another party’s failure to follow safety rules. And workers’ compensation is not always the end of the story. Even when your employer carries it, you may still have a separate claim against a negligent third party whose actions contributed to the incident.
You should speak with an attorney if:
- You were seriously injured at an oilfield, refinery, drilling site, or industrial facility
- Your employer or another company says the accident was your fault
- A contractor, subcontractor, or third party may have caused the accident
- Equipment, machinery, or safety systems failed
- You were exposed to chemicals, fumes, fire, or explosions
- You lost a loved one in a fatal oilfield accident
Oilfield sites are crowded with separate companies: operators, drilling contractors, well service crews, pipeline contractors, equipment suppliers, and transportation companies, each carrying its own safety duties. Figuring out who controlled the work, owned the equipment, or created the dangerous condition usually takes a real investigation, which is exactly why an early legal review matters.
Free Consultation for Your Oilfield Accident Case
Choosing a lawyer who understands the complexities of oilfield accidents can make all the difference. These cases turn on multiple contractors, layers of safety procedures, specialized equipment, and thousands of pages of records, and understanding how those pieces fit together is what determines who gets held accountable.
Perkins & Perkins has spent decades representing Texans in complex litigation involving industrial accidents, construction accidents, catastrophic injuries, and wrongful death, including an $18.1 million verdict in 2022, the most lucrative construction injury verdict in Texas that year. With more than 80 years of combined legal experience, we know how to investigate serious workplace incidents, preserve critical evidence, and build a case on facts rather than assumptions. Consultations are free, and because we work on a contingency fee basis, you pay nothing unless we recover money for you.
Understanding Your Compensation Options After an Oilfield Accident
Overview of Oilfield Injuries & Work Hazards
Many injured workers assume workers’ compensation is their only option, but recovery after an oilfield accident is often more complex, because more than one source may be available. Depending on what happened, you may have a workers’ compensation claim, a third-party injury claim, a non-subscriber employer claim, or a product liability claim involving defective equipment.
Which claim applies depends on who employed you, who controlled the work, where the accident happened, and whether defective equipment or another company’s unsafe conduct played a role. In many industrial accidents, more than one party shares responsibility, so a thorough investigation is what uncovers every available source of recovery. When liability is established, Texas law may allow you to recover past and future medical bills, lost income, reduced earning ability, pain and suffering, mental anguish, impairment, disfigurement, long-term care, and wrongful death damages when applicable.
How Liability Is Determined
Oilfield accidents are rarely caused by a single mistake. More often they are the result of several failures stacking up over time: unsafe work practices, deferred maintenance, communication breakdowns, production pressure, or ignored safety procedures. By the time a worker is hurt, the chain of events may have started hours, days, or even weeks earlier. That is why liability should be based on evidence, not assumptions or pressure from an employer or insurance company.
We review what happened, who controlled the worksite, what safety rules applied, and whether those rules were followed. This matters because it shapes whether you have a claim, who can be held responsible, and how much compensation may be available. Oilfield operations also involve numerous independent companies working under separate contracts at the same location, so determining who exercised operational control, who owned or maintained the equipment, and who had the authority to stop unsafe work often becomes the central question in the case.
Determining responsibility often requires reviewing evidence such as:
- Incident reports and internal investigations: Show how the accident was documented, whether company policies were followed, and whether similar incidents happened before.
- OSHA records and citations: May reveal safety violations, hazardous conditions, or failures to meet workplace safety standards.
- Job Safety Analyses, permits, and safety meetings: Help show whether foreseeable risks were identified and guarded against before work began.
- Contractor and master service agreements: Establish which company controlled the work, supplied the equipment, and assumed responsibility for safety.
- Maintenance and inspection records: Show whether machinery and safety systems were properly inspected, tested, and repaired.
- Training and supervision records: May reveal poor training, missing qualifications, or inadequate oversight.
- Witness statements: Help reconstruct events and expose gaps between what witnesses saw and what the company reported.
- Photos, video, drone imagery, and physical evidence: Document worksite conditions, equipment configuration, and the state of machinery right after the accident.
- Engineering and failure analysis: Determines whether equipment defects, design flaws, or improper repairs contributed to the incident.
Just as important is identifying what evidence is missing and why. Equipment gets repaired or put back in service before it can be inspected, scenes change as operations resume, footage is overwritten, and memories fade. Oil companies and their insurers often have safety personnel, engineers, and defense attorneys documenting the scene within hours of a serious incident. An independent investigation helps ensure the cause is determined by objective evidence, not just the conclusions of the companies involved.
Oilfield Accident Cases We Handle
Oil and gas is one of the most dangerous industries in Texas. Workers perform demanding, technical jobs around high-pressure equipment, hazardous chemicals, heavy machinery, elevated platforms, confined spaces, and energized electrical systems, any of which can cause catastrophic injury in seconds. Serious accidents are not inevitable, though. Most happen because equipment was poorly maintained, safety procedures were ignored, training was inadequate, or deadlines were put ahead of safety. Perkins & Perkins represents injured workers and families across Corpus Christi, the Coastal Bend, and South Texas in cases involving:
Explosions and Fires
Gas leaks, vapor cloud explosions, flash fires, arc flashes, combustible dust, welding and hot work, and failures to isolate hazardous energy can all trigger explosions and fires. These incidents often cause catastrophic burns, blast injuries, amputations, and wrongful death.
Refinery and Petrochemical Accidents
Refineries and petrochemical plants run on miles of piping, reactors, pressure vessels, and storage tanks. Workers may be hurt by process upsets, chemical releases, uncontrolled pressure events, lockout/tagout violations, confined space incidents, or failures to inspect and maintain critical systems.
Drilling Rig and Well Site Accidents
Drilling puts workers around rotating equipment, suspended loads, high-pressure systems, and heavy pipe. Accidents may involve derrick failures, pipe handling incidents, dropped objects, rig collapses, hoisting equipment, or cementing and casing operations.
Well Control and Blowout Accidents
Loss of well control is among the most dangerous events in the industry. Blowouts can occur when formation pressures are not controlled, blowout preventers malfunction, or well barriers fail, frequently leading to explosions, fires, toxic gas releases, and catastrophic injuries.
Pipeline and Midstream Accidents
Pipelines move oil, gas, and hazardous materials under significant pressure. Accidents may result from leaks, ruptures, corrosion, defective valves or welds, excavation damage, inadequate inspections, or unsafe repair and pigging work.
Tank Battery and Storage Tank Accidents
Storage facilities present flammable vapors, confined spaces, over-pressurization, and static electricity hazards. Fires, explosions, tank failures, and engulfment incidents can devastate workers performing inspection, cleaning, or transfer operations.
Heavy Equipment, Crane, and Dropped Object Accidents
Cranes, forklifts, loaders, hoists, and other machinery cause serious injuries when operators are poorly trained, equipment is defective, rigging fails, or lifts happen without proper communication. Dropped pipe, tools, and structural steel can cause fatal head, spinal, and crush injuries.
Falls, Elevated Work, and Scaffold Accidents
Working at height is routine on rigs, tanks, platforms, pipe racks, scaffolding, and structural steel. Falls, and being struck by tools or materials that were not properly secured, remain among the most common serious oilfield injuries.
Electrocution and Arc Flash Injuries
Exposed energized equipment, damaged wiring, defective grounding, arc flash events, and contact with overhead power lines can cause severe injury, especially when equipment is not properly de-energized before maintenance.
Chemical and Toxic Exposure
Workers may be exposed to benzene, hydrogen sulfide (H2S), drilling fluids, production chemicals, acids, solvents, silica, and other toxic substances, resulting in chemical burns, respiratory injuries, neurological damage, and long-term occupational illness.
Confined Space Accidents
Tanks, vessels, separators, and pipelines present oxygen-deficient atmospheres, toxic gas exposure, and engulfment risks. Strict entry procedures exist to protect workers, and failures to follow them cause preventable injuries and deaths.
Marine Terminal and Dock Accidents
Corpus Christi is home to one of the nation's busiest energy ports. Workers at marine terminals, docks, and loading operations face hazards involving cranes, loading arms, hoses, and vessel operations. These cases may involve both state and federal maritime law depending on where the accident occurred.
Turnaround and Shutdown Accidents
Planned maintenance outages bring thousands of extra contractors onto a site under compressed schedules, with simultaneous hot work, confined space entry, and heavy lifting. When coordination and safety procedures break down, serious accidents follow.
Vehicle and Oilfield Transportation Accidents
Constant movement of vacuum trucks, crude tankers, and flatbeds, along with other service vehicles, creates real risk. Accidents may result from driver fatigue, distraction, speeding, unsafe backing, overloaded vehicles, improperly secured cargo, or poor traffic control on lease roads and highways.
Defective Equipment and Product Liability
Some accidents are caused by faulty machinery rather than unsafe work. Defective valves, pressure control equipment, safety devices, cranes, pumps, and tools may fail due to manufacturing defects, design defects, or inadequate warnings, exposing manufacturers, distributors, or maintenance companies to liability.
Wrongful Death After an Oilfield Accident
Many oilfield accidents are fatal. Texas law may allow a surviving spouse, children, parents, or the estate's representative to pursue wrongful death and survival claims against the parties responsible.
Compensation May Be Available
If negligence caused your injury, you may be able to recover for medical bills, future treatment, lost wages, reduced earning ability, pain and suffering, mental anguish, physical impairment, disfigurement, and funeral expenses in wrongful death cases. Perkins & Perkins works to pursue the full value of your claim, not just the quickest or easiest settlement.
What to Do After an Oilfield Accident
After a serious worksite injury, your health comes first. If possible:
- Get medical care immediately.
- Report the accident to your supervisor.
- Write down what happened while it is fresh.
- Take photos of the area, equipment, and injuries if safe.
- Get names of witnesses.
- Keep copies of medical records and work documents.
- Do not sign anything or accept a settlement without legal advice.
- Speak with an oilfield accident attorney about your options.
Important evidence can disappear quickly after an oilfield accident. Acting early can help protect your rights.
Trusted Attorneys for Oilfield Accident Representation
Perkins & Perkins represents injured workers and families throughout Corpus Christi and South Texas. Our attorneys understand how serious these cases are and how much is at stake for injured workers and their families.
Clients turn to us because we offer:
- More than 80 years of combined legal experience
- A history of major results
- A record-setting $18.1 million construction injury verdict in 2022
- Free consultations
- No fees unless we win
- Personal attention from experienced attorneys
We handle the legal process so you can focus on your health, your family, and your future.
Get a Free Oilfield Accident Case Evaluation
You do not have to face an oil company, contractor, employer, or insurance carrier alone. Perkins & Perkins can investigate what happened, protect your rights, and fight for the compensation you deserve.
Contact Perkins & Perkins today for a free consultation. You pay nothing unless we recover compensation for you.
REQUEST A FREE CASE REVIEW
(361) 853-2120
Common Oilfield Injury Questions
Can I sue after an oilfield accident?
It depends on the facts. If your employer carries workers’ compensation, your claims against that employer may be limited, but you may still have a claim against a negligent third party. If your employer is a non-subscriber, you may have additional rights. Because many oilfield accidents involve multiple contractors at the same site, an investigation is often needed to determine who is legally responsible.
What if my employer says the accident was my fault?
Do not assume they are correct. Oilfield accidents often involve unsafe conditions, poor training, equipment failures, or the negligence of another company working at the site. A thorough investigation can determine what actually happened and whether others share responsibility.
Who can be held liable for an oilfield accident?
Liability depends on the facts. Potentially responsible parties may include the operator, drilling contractor, well servicing company, pipeline contractor, trucking company, equipment manufacturer, maintenance contractor, subcontractors, or property owner. Because these accidents frequently involve several companies working together, it is important to investigate every potential source of liability rather than assume only one party is at fault.
Can I still have a case if I receive workers' compensation?
Texas is unusual in that private employers are not required to carry workers’ compensation insurance. Employers that opt out are called non-subscribers. If you were hurt working for one, you may be able to bring a negligence claim directly against your employer, and different rules apply. Non-subscribers generally cannot argue that your own negligence, your assumption of the risk, or a coworker’s negligence bars your recovery. Determining whether your employer is a subscriber or non-subscriber is often one of the first and most important steps in evaluating your options.
What evidence is important in an oilfield accident case?
There are no upfront attorney’s fees. Perkins & Perkins works on a contingency fee basis, so we only get paid if we recover compensation for you.
What if defective equipment caused my injury?
If defective machinery, tools, valves, safety equipment, or industrial parts caused your accident, you may have a product liability claim against the manufacturer or another responsible party, in addition to any claims against negligent companies at the site.
How much is my oilfield accident case worth?
Every case is different. The value depends on your injuries, medical bills, lost income, future treatment needs, ability to work, permanent impairment, and the impact the injury has had on your life. An attorney can evaluate the specific facts and explain the damages available under Texas law.
How long do I have to file a claim in Texas?
In most Texas personal injury cases, you have two years from the date of the accident to file a lawsuit. Some deadlines may be shorter depending on the type of claim, so it is important to act quickly, especially since evidence can disappear well before that deadline.
What is a Texas non-subscriber employer?
In most Texas personal injury cases, you have two years from the date of the accident to file a lawsuit. Some deadlines may be shorter depending on the type of claim, so it is important to act quickly, especially since evidence can disappear well before that deadline.
How much does it cost to hire Perkins & Perkins?
Important evidence may include incident reports, OSHA investigations, Job Safety Analyses, safety meeting records, maintenance and inspection logs, training records, contractor agreements, photographs, surveillance footage, witness statements, equipment inspections, and engineering analyses. Preserving it early is critical, because scenes, equipment, and records often change soon after an incident.
Speak with an Oilfield Accident Attorney Today
Oilfield accident cases are rarely as simple as they first appear. Determining what happened often means understanding industrial operations, reviewing technical evidence, and identifying every responsible party. If you want to talk with an experienced Corpus Christi oilfield accident attorney who is prepared to take your case to trial, not just talk about it, contact Perkins & Perkins today for a free consultation. Your consultation is free, and there are no fees unless we win.