An oil drilling company was clanging through another day on a massive rig in the oil fields of Texas. Every connection, fitting, and piece of piping in the intricately designed machine was created to withstand the immense amount of pressure created by a lubricant called “Mud”, used to drill into the earth. When functioning normally, the rig’s machinery was designed to never come close to failure. However, as the crew maneuvered around the drill operations, an Orbit Valve sat in a closed position, directing tons of Mud pressure towards a weak fitting upstream to the blockage. Meanwhile, a drill manager was standing at a high point on the structure, directly in front of the weak link. Suddenly, and without warning, the weak fitting exploded. With a loud burst, the force was enough to blow the manager over 100 feet away.
The oil drill manager was fatally injured from the blast and fall. A hard worker with decades of experience, he had moved up the ranks at the major drilling company. He was also a dedicated family man, married to his high school sweetheart and devoted to his two children. The family was close-knit and irreparably damaged from the loss of the father.
An extended member of the decedent’s family was an attorney who knew the right person to contact. She reached out to Muhammad “Mo” Aziz with Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Agosto, Aziz & Stogner within days of the incident. Mo had litigated hundreds of explosion cases, and his first suspicion was a mechanism of failure. However, he had questions that could only be answered by the decedent, so he needed to look at the mechanics of the rig.
Looming across the table, the defendants included one of the largest drilling rig operators in the country — a well-operated and sophisticated group of personnel and machinery. Moreover, this type of oil rig was a complicated, impressive piece of equipment. Mo’s first step was to understand how the rig worked. As OSHA conducted their investigation, Mo’s team of experts began their own investigation of circumstances that led to the pressure blowout. However, because OSHA investigators had more immediate access to interview personnel, their report was released before Mo’s team had final findings. When he received the OSHA report, all findings pointed at a single specific fitting that someone had installed improperly. Still, from years of examining explosions, Mo knew the report failed to acknowledge the multiple catalysts that built up pressure in the rig in the first place.
Once Mo’s team concluded their investigation, he discovered quite a few additional factors that caused pressure to build within the rig. Most notably, despite the control panel indicating an open position, the Orbit Valve was closed while Mud was pumping. Upon further inspection, the pneumatic hoses that control the position had been incorrectly placed and were misaligned on the actuator. In other words, at some point, the hoses were removed and re-assembled incorrectly. Unsurprisingly, the defense claimed the decedent had swapped the hoses the morning of the incident.
Mo summoned a meeting of the experts to prove the decedent had not manipulated the valve. Using the sensors throughout the rig, the experts were able to indicate the valve was untouched throughout the decedent’s shift. Furthermore, an operator’s daily log indicated the Orbit Valve was last manipulated several hours before the decedent was even on the scene. He couldn’t have tampered with the hoses.
With comparative liability eliminated, the defendants began pointing fingers at each other, citing multiple improper mechanical issues throughout the rig. Mo needed to re-calibrate a sophisticated group to help them recognize their share of responsibility in the case. However, there was one glaring obstacle: Mo had assembled a team of over nine experts to explain the mechanics of the rig, and even he, with his years of experience, grappled with the complicated engineering principles. He needed a way to transform the dense material into a digestible timeline of events. Thus, Mo reached out to DK Global for a visual of the rig mechanics and eventual pressure blowout to silence any question of the defendants’ responsibility.
The presentation began with a 3D recreation of the oil rig, showing a close-up of the drill in action, highlighting the flow of Mud throughout the entire rig and the resulting pressure. The video then zoomed in on the Orbit Valve exhibiting a comparison of the defendant’s valve alongside an industry standard valve. It then moved to the control console, indicating the closed and open positions for the valve. In a close-up of the pneumatic hoses, the video showed the tubes swapping position. Next, the presentation demonstrated how an open position on the control console triggered a closed valve. The animation revealed a close-up on the point of the pressure blow-out, indicating the spike in pressure and the failed fitting installation. Finally, the scene depicted a reconstruction of the decedent standing in front of the fitting location, and his body being struck and thrown by the blowout.
Early in the case, it was generally assumed that the employer would provide some money to the decedent’s family, but that no other party would take responsibility. However, after identifying multiple defendants at fault, Mo intended to hold all parties accountable. At mediation, Mo presented the animation to the defendants and expressed his readiness to go to trial. With multiple parties involved, the defense came back only a couple weeks before trial with an eight-figure settlement.
A partner at Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Agosto, Aziz & Stogner in Houston, Muhammad Aziz specializes in catastrophic personal injury cases nationwide, particularly oil field accidents, eighteen-wheeler wrecks, and chemical plant fires. Since joining the firm in 2006, Aziz has recovered more than $1,000,000,000 in settlements for his clients. He’s been recognized as one of the Top 100 Texas Super Lawyers. Texas Lawyer Magazine honored Aziz as “Attorney of the Year” in their Texas Legal Excellence Awards in 2021. In 2022, he received the “Excellence in the Legal Profession” award from the Muslim Bar Association of Houston.
