Even as a Pittsburg County jury was hearing evidence in the lawsuit trial over a 2018 gas rig fire that killed five men near Quinton, the companies involved were being sued by a survivor of the tragic incident.
The capability of reviewing any cases related to the trial and lawsuit were kept from public viewing until recently by the trial judge. The jury found Red Mountain Energy, Crescent Consulting, Patterson UTI, and National Oilwell Varco (NOV) responsible for the deaths of five men in the 2018 oil rig fire outside Quinton and awarded a total of $20 million to the two families.
But now a lawsuit has been filed by survivor Steven D. Wilson of Marlow. He sued Patterson-UTI Drilling Co. LLC; Patterson-UTI Energy Inc.; Patterson-UTI Management Services LLC; Red Mountain Energy LLC; Red Mountain Operating LLC; and National Oilwell Varco.
Wilson worked on the rig as a Senior MWD (Measure While Drilling) hand and was an employee of Skyline Directional Drilling LLC of Oklahoma City. He is asking for more than $75,000 from each in his negligence lawsuit.
The explosion and fire happened eleven days after Rig 219 had been moved to the well site near the town of Quinton. The blowout happened the morning of January 22, 2018.
“Mr. Wilson was n the process of walking off the rig when the blowout occurred. He was thrown off the stairway to ground where he landed on his back and right shoulder,” stated the lawsuit.
His suit alleges that there were numerous “indicators” that the well had problems hours before the blowout. Wilson also accuses the companies of negligence, gross negligence, carelessness and recklessness and says some of defendants failed to hire, train, instruct,supervise and/or retain competent and qualified employees and agents.
Source: lawsuit documents
