The process train runs hot and under pressure across the deck.
Beyond the separators, production runs on heat exchangers, scrubbers, pumps, piping, and valves operating under heat and pressure. Hot surfaces, pressure releases, and moving equipment injure workers throughout the facility.
The rest of the train.
Process equipment is the wider production system — heat exchangers, scrubbers, pumps, compressors’ auxiliaries, piping, and valves — that moves and conditions hydrocarbons under temperature and pressure.
Burned, released, struck.
Burns from hot surfaces, steam, and process fluid; pressure releases from failed piping or valves; caught-in injuries on pumps; and falls from elevated equipment. Missing insulation, guarding, or isolation is usually behind it.
Which law — and who answers.
Production work crosses the line between vessel and platform, so the governing law turns on where you were.
The operator owns process safety on the facility — the design, the mechanical-integrity program, and the procedures. Its non-delegable duties and any retained control carry liability.
The contractor crews that run and maintain the equipment answer for negligent work; the borrowed-employee doctrine sorts out who controlled the job.
A defective separator, compressor, vessel, valve, or relief device supports a products claim, and an unfit system can render a vessel unseaworthy.
On a floater the crew are usually seamen (Jones Act); on a fixed platform the LHWCA/OCSLA and §905(b) vessel negligence apply. The firm preserves whichever route fits (Jones Act vs. workers’ comp).
Sound like your situation? Calling us is confidential, costs nothing, and starts nothing you don’t choose to start.
Text (713) 489-2297We map the system.
The firm reconstructs the equipment, the isolation, and the maintenance, drawing on the burn, release, and caught-in analyses.
What the other side will argue.
Expect the familiar moves — the claim that the equipment was isolated rather than left energized — alongside the standard fights over seaman status, comparative fault, and surveillance. The full Production defense playbook, with how each argument is met, is set out on our production operations page.
Integrity programs leave records.
Process equipment is inspected, insulated, isolated, and maintained under a mechanical-integrity program, so a burn or release points to a documented lapse. The firm proves the standard through a process-safety expert, and the inspection records, the isolation permits, and the maintenance history carry the negligence and, on a vessel, the unseaworthy case.
Hot, pressurized equipment is supposed to be insulated, isolated, and inspected — an injury marks where that stopped.
What to protect first.
For this work the evidence is the inspection records, the isolation permits, and the maintenance history — held by the company and routinely overwritten, so demand preservation in writing before it is lost, and get prompt medical care. The full first-days checklist is on our production operations page.
Where this connects.
Production Operations · Burns · Explosion & Fire · Caught-In Injuries · §905(b)
What happens when you text us
Tell us what happened — in your own words, as much or as little as you want.
We review it free. You learn whether maritime law protects you and what your options actually are.
You decide. Nothing is filed, and no one contacts your employer, unless you choose to move forward.
Your conversation with us is confidential. There is no fee unless we win. Hablamos español.
Reach out even if…
- You think the accident was partly your fault — under the Jones Act, your own fault reduces a recovery but does not bar it.
- You already gave a statement or signed something — a release signed under pressure can be challenged.
- You still work for the company — talking to a lawyer is confidential, and retaliation for pursuing a claim can itself be actionable.
- You’re not sure your case is “big enough” — that’s exactly what a free review is for.
Catastrophic offshore injury? The investigation can’t wait.
Equipment gets repaired, records get revised, and witnesses rotate off the rig. Doyle Dennis Avery LLP moves quickly to preserve the evidence and identify every responsible party. A case review costs nothing, there is no obligation, and your employer will not know you contacted us.
This page is general information, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. The law that applies to an offshore injury — the Jones Act, the LHWCA and \u00a7 905(b), OCSLA, the general maritime law, product-liability law, or another body of law — and the parties responsible depend on the specific facts. Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome. Doyle Dennis Avery LLP · Houston, Texas. This is attorney advertising.
