Texas oil executive pleads guilty on charges related to death of worker
AUSTIN, Texas — A West Texas oil executive will go to prison for violating laws meant to protect workers — actions that led to the deaths of a worker and his wife in 2019.
Trent Day, vice president at Odessa, Texas-based Aghorn Energy, pleaded guilty to charges of violating the Clean Air Act and OSHA regulations, the Department of Justice announced on Wednesday.
It's a rare criminal verdict in an industry where dozens of workers per year die on the job, and more than a thousand Texans die crossing oilfield roads.
Day admitted to failure to control the release of hydrogen sulfide gas, a potentially deadly accompaniment of oil and gas extraction.
'Through these guilty pleas, the defendants accept responsibility for allowing hazards that should have been prevented,' Adam Gustafson, the acting head of the Justice Department's environmental enforcement arm said in a statement.
'The Justice Department can't stand by when employers put workers at such risk.'
By doing so, 'he placed others in imminent danger of death,' the Justice Department found.
In 2019, Jacob Dean, an Aghorn employee, was called to check on a faulty injection well — a device that pumps used fracking fluid back underground.
In the pump house, 'he encountered deadly hydrogen sulfide gas, was overcome, and died,' the Justice Department found.
After he failed to respond, his wife Natalee loaded their children into the car and went looking for him.
She found him in the pumphouse, where, the Justice Department concluded, 'she was also overcome while looking for Jacob and died.'
If Aghorn and its contractors 'had done what the law requires, Jacob and Natalee [Dean] might still be with us today,' Gustafson said.
Day admitted to federal prosecutors that he could, and should, have controlled hydrogen sulfide emissions, but had not done so.
Kodiak Roustabout, a contractor licensed to inspect Aghorn injection wells also admitted to sending fraudulent well data to Texas regulators.
In those reports, federal prosecutors found, the company 'claiming they were tests for specific wells when Kodiak knew they were not actual records of tests of those wells.'
Day will face 5 months in prison, and Aghorn will pay a $1 milllion fine. Kodiak will pay another $400,000.
'Energy production is vital, but it must be done competently and lawfully,' Jeffrey Hall, acting head of the Environmental Protection Agency's enforcement division, said in a statement.
'Operators who gravely endanger and kill others and those who lie to the government will be held accountable for their criminal conduct,' Hall added.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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