Pain of Oil Field Tragedy Lingers

Little Tyler Johnson blows kisses every time his mom drives past his father’s grave at Ivy Lawn Memorial Park.

Derek Abbott has been forced to abandon his planned career as an oil field worker. These days he tires easily and has to work as a night watchman to pay his bills.

And Bruce Harris and Carolyn Davis still ache so much over the death of their son that they cannot talk about the day he was overcome by poison gas.

It was two years ago today--Aug. 10, 1994--when seven oil field workers were overcome by poisonous carbon monoxide gas at a Vintage Petroleum well at Seacliff, about 10 miles north of here.

Within minutes of the noontime gas leak, three people were dead and four others badly injured from an unseen, killer gas. Ventura County rescue crews swarmed across the area as a Sheriff’s Department helicopter transported the sick and dying to emergency rooms.

And two years later, the victims are not limited to those who died. They range from 2-year-old Tyler to dozens of other relatives and hundreds of friends and co-workers.

“It’s hard to put blame,” said Shannon O’Toole, the mother of Tyler and former fiancee of the boy’s father, Ronald Johnson, 24, one of three oil rig workers who died that sunny Wednesday noon at the Vintage Petroleum oil well.

“I can and I have blamed people in the past, but I try not to think about the accident part anymore,” O’Toole said. “I just think about missing him. I don’t think I’ll ever get over it.”

The incident touched off a flurry of lawsuits by more than a dozen plaintiffs. Some of the cases have been settled, but the remaining complaints will be argued at a consolidated jury trial scheduled Oct. 21 in Ventura County Superior Court.

Most of the victims of the gas leak do not like to talk about it. Others are looking for justice at the upcoming civil trial.

“I’m focusing on revenge,” said Abbott, 20, an Oak View resident who was on the job for only six weeks before the fatal gas leak. “They killed my three friends.”

Oil workers had spent most of that week trying to revive an abandoned well 10,000 feet deep that is owned by Vintage Petroleum of Tulsa, Okla.

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Vintage executives had hired Pride Petroleum Services of Ventura to do the work and Schlumberger Well Services to provide the equipment and expertise needed for the job.

All three of the workers who died were Pride Petroleum employees.

The men had surrounded an oil pit as the work was under way. Suddenly a burst of water and deadly fumes began spouting from the well head and swirling throughout the cellar.

Some witnesses said the fluid was shooting as high as 10 feet from the top of the well before falling down into the pit, which was quickly filling with the deadly mix of carbon monoxide and water.

In an attempt to stem the water flow, Johnson and Pride workers Sean Harris and Jason Hoskins climbed into the pit. They were all overcome by what proved to be lethal carbon monoxide gas and died.

Hoskins, 22, left behind a pregnant wife, Tiffany, one of many plaintiffs in the consolidated litigation.

Four other men who tried to help were seriously injured. Of those four oil rig workers--Abbott, Jeff Sandoval, Toby Thrower and Jerry Walker--only Sandoval has not filed a lawsuit as a result of the accident.

Most of the claims against Schlumberger have been settled privately, although attorneys are still negotiating Abbott’s complaint against that company.

“We’re still trying to ascertain the exact nature and extent of his permanent injuries,” said attorney Duffy Buchanan, who represents the Oak View man.

But the case against Vintage Petroleum, which could be found liable for millions of dollars if a jury finds the company negligent, is looming.

Among other allegations, plaintiffs claim that a Vintage consultant had dismantled a flow line designed to divert gas, water and oil away from the cellar just hours before the accident.

Vintage Petroleum consultant Jon Crawford told The Times two years ago that he thought the device unnecessary after working at the pit for most of that week without any evidence of dangerous gas. Crawford could not be reached for comment earlier this week.

But Bruce Finck, who represents Vintage Petroleum, said the other companies also may have played a significant part in the fatal leak.

“Vintage is abiding by the [state] Division of Oil and Gas advisory opinion that on all well perforations, carbon monoxide testings should be taken,” he said.

Perforation is a process used to reactivate a dormant well by igniting small explosive charges. A byproduct of the explosions is carbon monoxide gas.

After a lengthy investigation, state regulators fined both Schlumberger Well Services and Pride Petroleum more than $90,000 combined for safety and other procedural violations related to the deaths and injuries.

Investigators found that Schlumberger and Pride officials failed to properly ventilate the work space, failed to prevent workers from entering and remaining in an unsafe area and failed to ensure that workers used all of the proper safety equipment.

Vintage Petroleum, however, was never penalized by state regulators, Finck said. “The issue boils down to safety precautions that should be performed,” he said.

What’s more, Finck said, there was no reason to believe that significant amounts of carbon monoxide gas would result from the work being done at the Vintage well that morning.

“It was a heretofore unknown risk,” he said of the poison gas. “The people selling carbon monoxide monitoring equipment are doing a landslide business as a result of this incident.”

Robert Cox, a Vintage petroleum vice president and the company’s general counsel, declined to discuss the accident or litigation in much detail. “It was a tragedy that occurred,” he said. “It makes everyone that is touched by it sad.”

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Plaintiffs’ attorneys, however, are basing most of their case on the decision by Crawford to dismantle the safety valve.

“It’s an accident that was quite avoidable,” said Bakersfield attorney Milton Younger, who represents former Schlumberger worker Jerry Walker.

Younger advised his client not to discuss the case. But he said Walker is doing well despite brain damage that has diminished his thinking capacity and prevented him from working.

Walker is enrolled at Cal State Bakersfield studying business management, Younger said.

“He’s still pretty bright, but he’s lost some of his intellectual abilities,” Younger said.

Some of the other victims’ relatives have not been so fortunate.

Century City attorney Steven D. Archer, who represents 2-year-old Tyler Johnson as well as Bruce Harris and Carolyn Davis, the divorced parents of Sean Harris, 26, said his clients are having some difficulty adjusting to the accident.

Through their attorney, Harris and Davis declined to discuss the accident or lawsuit. But for O’Toole, even a hefty jury award would not make up for her son having to grow up without a father.

“Every time we drive past the cemetery he yells ‘Hi’ and blows him a kiss. But he only knows his father by pictures.

“I just think about all the things Ron would have taught him,” said O’Toole, who was engaged to Johnson. “There are a lot things I’d like to teach him that I can’t.”