PHMSA Issues Changes To Pipeline Safety Regulations
Posted on Mar 11, 2015 in Energy/Environmental, Investigations | Comments Off on PHMSA Issues Changes To Pipeline Safety Regulations
Earlier today, the U.S. Department of Transportation (through PHMSA) issued changes to certain pipeline safety regulations including the performance of post-construction inspections, leak surveys of Type B onshore gas gathering lines, qualifying plastic pipe joiners, regulation of ethanol, transportation of pipe, filing of offshore pipeline condition reports, and the calculation of...
Offshore Platform Owner Wins Summary Judgment Against Services Contractor’s Injured Employee
Posted on Mar 6, 2015 in Energy/Environmental, Workplace Safety | Comments Off on Offshore Platform Owner Wins Summary Judgment Against Services Contractor’s Injured Employee
An owner and operator of an offshore platform hired a services contractor to diagnose and repair a malfunctioning vertical caisson pump used to pump seawater up to the platform. The services contractor’s employee was injured in performing the work and brought suit against the operator. Last week, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana granted summary...
Ten Considerations To Mitigate Exposure Before Shipping Crude By Rail
Posted on Mar 1, 2015 in Energy/Environmental, Investigations, Process Safety, Transportation | Comments Off on Ten Considerations To Mitigate Exposure Before Shipping Crude By Rail
Following two derailments of trains transporting crude in February, Sutherland attorneys Matt Gatewood, Susan Lafferty, and David McCullough issued the Legal Alert available here and copied below addressing ten considerations that any shipper or owner of crude should assess before shipping by rail. ***** Last week’s derailments in West Virginia and Canada bring more scrutiny to the...
Senator Asks OMB To Address CPC-1232 Tank Cars Following West Virginia Derailment
Posted on Feb 23, 2015 in Energy/Environmental, Transportation | Comments Off on Senator Asks OMB To Address CPC-1232 Tank Cars Following West Virginia Derailment
On Friday, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden sent a letter to the Office of Management and Budget regarding the safety of CPC-1232 tank cars used in transporting crude-by-rail. In response to last week’s train derailment in West Virginia, the Senator asked for the final rule to address the “supposedly safer CPC-1232 tank cars,” of which 55,000 will be in service by the end of...
Memorandum Prepared By Company President On Afternoon Of Deadly Incident Deemed Privileged
Posted on Feb 9, 2015 in Energy/Environmental, Investigations | Comments Off on Memorandum Prepared By Company President On Afternoon Of Deadly Incident Deemed Privileged
In litigation arising out of a worker’s death in a drilling rig incident, a party sought to withhold as privileged a memorandum prepared on the afternoon of the incident by the company’s president based on interviews and notes he conducted at the site of the incident. He addressed the memorandum to the company’s current counsel and to its former counsel. The other...
Subsequent Remedial Measures Excluded From Evidence Following Well Control Event
Posted on Feb 8, 2015 in Energy/Environmental, Investigations, Process Safety | Comments Off on Subsequent Remedial Measures Excluded From Evidence Following Well Control Event
Following an oil and gas well blowout in Louisiana on November 18, 2009, the well operator changed its official barrier policy and circulated a new policy throughout its operations team. On December 11, 2009, the company then conducted a safety stand down meeting that included a PowerPoint presentation as a result of the well blowout discussing operational changes and steps that...
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