Oil Rig Maker Blamed for Fatal Collapse

GALVESTON, Texas (CN) - Twenty-six workers injured when an oil rig collapsed, killing one in the Bay of Campeche, sued the rig manufacturer in Federal Court.

Plaintiffs include the estate representative of Isidoro Solorzano Castillo, who was fatally injured in the May 5 incident.

The workers sued rig maker Friede & Goldman Ltd., a Houston company, and its affiliates Friede & Goldman LLC, FG Engineering Ltd. and FG Engineering Ltd. fka Friede & Goldman Ltd.

The Aug. 6 lawsuit includes scant details of the accident, but places all the blame on Friede & Goldman.

"F&G knew of the design defects, yet knowingly marketed and sold the vessel and placed the vessel into the stream of commerce instead of warning of the defective and dangerous condition of the vessel," the complaint states.

The workers say they were forced to abandon the rig as it collapsed, and they were "left to a horrifying fate," all of them seriously injured and traumatized.

Mexico's national oil company Pemex contracted the Troll Solution to do maintenance on wells in Pemex's Abkatun-Pol-Chuc shallow water oil field, Reuters reported after the fatal accident.

Pemex said a faulty leg made the rig collapse, and that 101 workers were evacuated and two died. The workers were employed by Typhoon Offshore, an oil service firm owned by Mexican conglomerate Grupo Salinas, according to Reuters and Offshoreenergytoday.com.

The workers seek lost wages, medical expenses and punitive damages for gross negligence, products liability, negligent design and negligent misrepresentation.

They are represented by Francis Spagnoletti of Houston.

A Friede & Goldman manager said Friday that he was not aware of the lawsuit.

The final two defendants are the American Bureau of Shipping and ABS Group of Companies. The lawsuit does not explain their connection to the incident.

This has not been a good year for Pemex operations in the southern Gulf of Mexico, from which the company pumps 70 percent of its crude oil production.

Four people died in a fire on a Pemex platform on April 4, and a June 22 fire on another Pemex platform forced three workers to evacuate, maritimenewstoday.com reported.

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