Personal Injury
As a whole, the oil & gas drilling industry tends to pay as much or more
attention to safety practices than other industries, and accident frequencies
are relatively lower when compared to other fields of labor. However, because
of the nature of the products dealt with (highly combustible and explosive
hydrocarbons), dangerous occurrences like blowouts and wellsite fires are
among the nation's most dangerous onsite accidents.
At Signa Engineering Corp., we offer more than just expert project management
and drilling design. Our engineering experience in the oil and gas industry also
allows us to serve impeccably as expert witnesses when someone is injured as the
result of an oilfield accident. Our staff is globally recognized for their knowledge
of operations, drilling methods, completion and production of oil and gas and
environmental issues. We are also expertly qualified to demonstrate how oilfield
equipment works, who was negligent in oilfield practices, and subsequently, why an
accident occurred.
Case Histories
As part of their everyday performance, our engineering staff analyzes critical wells
with clarity to determine and mitigate hazardous drilling factors such as high temperatures,
over-pressured formations, sour gasses and dangers due to remote locations and hostile
environments. Subsequently, our staff can apply in-depth analysis skills to evaluate wells
after an accident to determine mitigating factors in the catastrophe and why drilling
plans failed.
Our expert witness and litigation staff has served as consultants for many major oil and
gas drilling and exploration companies and numerous energy-based attorneys since 1995. Signa
has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in energy litigation cases by utilizing our
field-tested ingenuity to provide the most pertinent and concise aspects of cases, such as:
- Underbalanced drilling on an oil well was in progress when a failure in a BOP stack element occurred. This resulted in a blowout, causing extensive property damage and injuries to the crew.
- During Underbalanced drilling operations, the rubber sealing element in a BOP stack component failed, causing property damage and an alleged personal injury.
- A well blowout occurred while workers were trying to come out of a hole to make a bit change, when the well kicked. Workers tried to put the Kelly back on but were unsuccessful. When the well kicked, well was blowing sand, rocks and gas up through the crown and eventually ignited. A BOP installed on the well was not shut in. Plaintiff claimed foot injuries. Regulatory agency reported on defendant's right to dump waste material in specified area.
- A roughneck (drilling rig worker) was injured while changing the rubber element on a rotating blowout preventer.
- While running casing in the hole, a joint of casing fell out of position during makeup and injured a member of the casing crew. The drill rig derrick was allegedly not centered over the hole, making the handling of casing hazardous.
Who to Call
When an oilfield worker has been killed or injured because of carelessness or negligence, Signa
can provide expert consultation supported by demonstrative evidence to paint the clearest picture
in the courtroom. Created in 1992 as a Engineering Service Company, Signa expanded its services in
1996 to offer expert witness and litigation support and has been instrumental in the resolution of
cases involving patent infringement, personal injury and property damage, product design, health,
safety and environmental, contract disputes and equipment failures.
Signa has even developed its own Risk Mitigation Service for drilling operations. The service carefully
and thoroughly reviews all aspects of a critical well drilling process. Upon completion of this
evaluation, Signa can provide a detailed Hazard Identification (HAZID) and Hazard Operations (HAZOP)
analysis to identify inherent risks in a critical drilling program and ways to mitigate these problems.
We have experience in handling virtually every type of upstream oil & gas procedure. Contact
Dave Roseland with your expert witness needs, or simply check our
case histories or see our
client list in pdf format to get a better feel for what we do.




