Crisis Response &
Incident Investigation

Archive for August, 2013

Sutherland lawyer quoted about offshore platform accident investigation

Posted on: August 23rd, 2013

Daniel Johnson recently discussed with the Houston Business Journal the decision by Black Elk Energy Offshore Operations LLC to commission its own investigation into the cause of a deadly platform accident that killed three workers last year.

The report by an outside consultant said the explosion that occurred was due to poor training of workers who were hired by a contractor in violation of Black Elk’s contract. Such a report could be most effective with the investment community, Johnson says, because it suggests Black Elk is taking a deep look at the incident with the idea of preventing future disasters.

The company’s report doesn’t absolve the oil company from fault with federal regulators, Johnson told the HBJ, although they may take it into account as they do their own investigation.

The full article, “Black Elk explosion report could boost company profile,” is available here (subscription required): http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/blog/drilling-down/2013/08/black-elk-report-could-boost-company.html?s=print