Nigeria Offshore Accident Attorney

Once the deepwater of the Gulf of Mexico was the new frontier of oil exploration. Today, deepwater discoveries of oil reserves off the coast of Nigeria have drawn the attention of international oil companies and made Nigeria a new frontier for energy exploration. With the uncertainty about deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, some drilling platforms have moved to Africa—and some American rig workers have followed the rig to foreign waters. The attention to worker safety, however, isn’t always as rigorous in places like Nigeria, and offshore accidents are common.

Unfortunately, when overseas, these offshore injuries can cause maritime claims to be even more complex.

If you are seriously hurt while working for a U.S. company offshore Nigeria, you need a Jones Act lawyer familiar with overseas offshore worker injuries. We at Arnold & Itkin are experienced at assisting American oil industry workers injured overseas in places like Nigeria. Often, overseas accidents are caused by a lack of focus on safety, lack of proper training for workers, or failure to perform routine maintenance. We are skilled lawyers committed to helping injured American workers obtain compensation for injuries caused by negligent employers or co-workers overseas, including Nigeria. We have been successful at bringing claims back to U.S. courts, where workers’ legal rights are best protected.

If you were injured working off the coast of Nigeria, contact our offshore injury attorneys. We've recovered billions for our clients and are ready to see how we can assist you.

Regarding Nigeria & Offshore Oil Exploration

A number of U.S.-based and international oil companies are exploring offshore Nigeria, employing skilled American rig workers in foreign waters in the Gulf of Guinea and Bight of Benin. Companies producing oil offshore of Nigeria include ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, and Conoco Phillips. ExxonMobil produces about 800,000 billion barrels of oil per day; most of its production is offshore. Meanwhile, Chevron has about 600,000 billion barrels per day of production capacity. Nigeria has an estimated 37 billion barrels of oil reserves offshore in the Bight of Benin, the Gulf of Guinea and the Bight of Bonny, as well as in the Niger River Delta.

Nigeria produced more than 2.2 billion barrels of oil per day in 2009, making it Africa’s largest oil producer, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The U.S. imports approximately 40% of Nigeria’s oil.

Rig workers working offshore of Nigeria can get seriously injured by being struck by heavy equipment, by a slip and fall, or by a fire or explosion. For example, in July 2010, the Jack Ryan drillship operating in the Akpo oilfield in deep water off the coast of Nigeria was carrying out equipment testing when a load-bearing pin on the crane boom failed. Three rig workers fell overboard, one to his death, underscoring the consequences of complacency and lack of attention to safety.

You can suffer a serious injury in foreign waters whether you have a drilling job, a floorman’s job, a roustabout job, a rig welder job, a rig mechanic job, an FPSO job, or a rig catering job. Any serious injury accident may be caused by negligence on the part of an employer to proper maintenance and safety training for workers.

Nigeria Offshore Accident FAQ