The Delfin LNG project in the US Gulf of Mexico, already beset by years of delays, now faces a potentially costly lawsuit and increased regulatory scrutiny stemming from a Feb. 3 pipeline explosion.
The incident also shines a fresh spotlight on worker safety as the rapid expansion of LNG and other facilities on the US Gulf Coast continues to stretch an already strained skilled labor force.
A worker who says he suffered “catastrophic personal injuries” in the blast in Louisiana is seeking at least $1 million in damages from the line’s owners, which include LNG developer Delfin Midstream.
In a suit filed in a Houston court on Feb. 10, his lawyers accused Delfin and pipeline operator Genesis Offshore of negligence in maintaining the pipeline — which will feed the floating LNG platform — and said the explosion and fire that caused the injuries were preventable.
The blaze occurred a few weeks after Delfin said it planned to take a final investment decision (FID) on the first phase of its floating LNG export project this quarter. That is five years past the project’s original start-up target, with FID repeatedly pushed back as fundraising efforts lagged and regulatory hurdles mounted.
Sources said it’s unclear whether the pipeline rupture will further impact project timelines given that a federal agency has now ordered a series of corrective measures that could take months.
DELFIN LNG OFFTAKE AGREEMENTS Year Announced Buyer Volume (million tons/yr) Term (yrs) SPA or HOA 2025 SEFE 1.5 15 HOA 2024 Chesapeake Energy 0.5 20 SPA 2023 Gunvor 0.5-1.0 20 SPA 2023 Centrica 1.0 15 SPA 2023 Hartree Partners 0.6 20 SPA 2022 Devon Energy 1.0 NA HOA 2022 Vitol 0.5 15 SPA Source: Energy Intelligence, companies ‘Conscious Indifference’
Pigging operations were under way to prepare the pipeline for future use when the first of at least two blasts occurred, according to the lawsuit. The worker, Enermech employee Laman Gutierrez, was monitoring gauges in his vehicle at the time.
A photo taken at the blast site in the aftermath of the fire showed a burned-out truck next to a pipeline and related infrastructure. Louisiana State Police are investigating, according to reports.
Along with Delfin, Genesis and several of its subsidiaries were also named as defendants. Lawyers for Gutierrez accused Delfin and Genesis of having an “actual, subjective awareness” of the risk level involved with work at the blast site “but proceeded with conscious indifference to the rights, safety and welfare of plaintiff and others.”
Corrective Actions
In a Feb. 6 notice, the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) laid out 16 steps the Delfin operators must take before restoring the pipeline to service.
Those including submitting an inspection schedule to “determine the full extent of damage caused” by the failure; testing and analysis of the failed pipe by an independent third party; a written restart plan prior to placing the pipe back into service; and a review of the emergency response apparatus.
PHMSA noted that the rupture released about 56 million cubic feet of gas, which then caught fire and burned for several hours and was between 50 and 80 feet wide. It also caused the “ejection” of four to five feet of pipe.
“The failure occurred in connection with Delfin’s efforts to clean and conduct an internal inspection of the offshore gas pipeline, which has not been in operation since 2012, prior to returning the line to service,” PHMSA said.
'Inherent Risks'
The Delfin incident is the third in the past year involving Gulf LNG construction sites. In April 2025, work was temporarily stopped at Sempra’s Port Arthur LNG site in Texas when three workers died following a scaffolding collapse.
Contractor Bechtel later said that a lax safety culture and inadequate training had contributed to factors that ultimately resulted in the fatalities at Port Arthur. The company has since rolled out plans to improve safety at all of its work sites.
Last August, an employee died in an industrial accident at the Golden Pass LNG construction site in Texas. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation is ongoing.
Bill Caram, executive director of the nonprofit Pipeline Safety Trust, said the Delfin explosion cannot be dismissed as a minor or isolated incident.
"We will know more about why this happened once a root cause analysis of the incident is conducted, but there are a few initial items that give us pause," Caram said in a statement. “For one, Delfin was apparently injecting natural gas to move the cleaning and inspection tools, a practice which concerns us considering the pipeline has not been in operation for over a decade, and its integrity might be unknown.”
The incident also "highlights the risk of recommissioning old, unused or underutilized pipelines for new purposes, including transporting different products at different pressures, and often in different directions,” Caram said. “With more of this work on the horizon, operators, industry, regulators, and the public must be aware and protected from the inherent risks of repurposing pipelines transporting and storing these potentially dangerous products.”
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