The operator sent me an MSA. What insurance does it actually require?

A Master Service Agreement sets the terms for every job you do for that operator until somebody cancels it. Work orders come and go. The MSA stays.

The insurance exhibit (sometimes Exhibit A, sometimes Article 9 or 10, sometimes a separate "Insurance Requirements" attachment) does three jobs at once:

1. Sets minimum coverage and limits you must carry for as long as you work under the agreement.
2. Requires the operator to be protected under your policies, through additional insured status, a waiver of subrogation, and primary and non-contributory wording.
3. Backs up the indemnity section. Under Texas law, an oilfield indemnity that covers the other side's negligence generally has to be supported by insurance to be enforceable. That is the Texas Oilfield Anti-Indemnity Act, Chapter 127 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code.

That third job is the one most contractors miss. The insurance exhibit is not a separate checklist. It is the funding mechanism for the knock-for-knock indemnity a few pages earlier in the same contract.

Once you sign, compliance gets checked by people who have never seen your yard. Usually it is a reviewer at ISNetworld or Avetta comparing your certificate and endorsements to the requirements the operator loaded. If the paper does not match, you do not get on location.

Here is how a typical oilfield MSA insurance exhibit reads, translated. Wording varies by operator, but the structure is remarkably consistent.

Workers compensation and employer's liability

The MSA will require statutory workers comp and employer's liability, often with an "alternate employer" or "borrowed servant" request and a Texas waiver of subrogation. Texas lets most private employers choose whether to carry comp (Labor Code §406.002 says an employer "may elect to obtain" coverage), but operators routinely make it a condition of the contract anyway. More on that in do oilfield contractors need workers comp in Texas.

Commercial general liability

Per-occurrence and aggregate limits, products and completed operations, and contractual liability broad enough to cover the indemnity you are giving. Watch for the phrases "including contractual liability assumed under this Agreement" and "no exclusion for explosion, collapse, underground resources." Oilfield GL policies are often written with exclusions or sublimits on exactly those exposures.

Business auto liability

"Any auto" or owned, hired and non-owned autos, a combined single limit, the operator as an insured, and a waiver. If you haul liquids for hire, federal financial responsibility rules may also apply; see oilfield auto and MCS-90.

Umbrella or excess liability

A dollar figure over the GL, auto and employer's liability. The exhibit often says the umbrella must be "follow form" and must extend additional insured status to the operator. Commonly seen limits for small service contractors run from $1 million to $5 million, sometimes more for higher-hazard work. See what limits operators require.

Pollution

Either contractors pollution liability, or a "sudden and accidental" pollution buyback on the GL, plus auto pollution if you haul. Who is responsible for what pollution is usually allocated in the indemnity section, typically by where the release starts. See oilfield pollution liability.

Property and equipment

Often a requirement that you insure your own equipment, or a statement that you bear the risk of loss to it, plus a waiver of subrogation on that coverage. That is the property half of knock-for-knock. See oilfield equipment insurance.

Professional liability and the fine print

Professional liability shows up for inspection, engineering and consulting work. The administrative clauses cover notice of cancellation, carrier rating, deductibles borne by you, and endorsement copies on request.

This is the table we work from when reviewing an exhibit. The left column is the kind of language you will see. The right column is what has to be on the policy, not just on the certificate.

A Texas certificate cannot fix a gap in the policy. The Insurance Code says a certificate "is not a policy of insurance and does not amend, extend, or alter the coverage" (Tex. Ins. Code §1811.152). If the endorsement is not on the policy, the certificate cannot say it is.

When an operator or a compliance platform rejects a certificate, it is almost never the GL limit. It is one of these.

Additional insured on the wrong form. The MSA asks for completed operations AI and the policy only has ongoing operations AI. Or the GL has a blanket AI form but the auto policy has nothing. Or the umbrella is silent. See what is a blanket additional insured endorsement.

Primary and non-contributory missing or partial. The GL has it, the umbrella does not. Reviewers check every policy the MSA names. See what is primary and non-contributory.

Waiver of subrogation missing on workers comp. In Texas the comp waiver is its own endorsement, the Texas Waiver of Our Right to Recover From Others Endorsement (WC 42 03 04). The Texas Supreme Court has held that a comp carrier that signs this waiver cannot get around it by recovering from the injured worker's settlement with the protected party (Wausau v. Wedel, 2018). That waiver has real value to the operator, which is why they insist on it. See waiver of subrogation in the oilfield.

Insured contract coverage restricted. If your GL carries a contractual liability limitation, your indemnity promise to the operator is effectively uninsured. That can breach the MSA and, in Texas, can affect whether the indemnity is enforceable at all.

Named insured mismatch. The MSA is signed by "ABC Well Service, LLC" and the policy is issued to "ABC Well Services, Inc." That is a rejection every time.

The cleanest way to avoid all five is to send the exhibit to your agent before you sign and have them answer clause by clause. That is what an MSA review is.

Chapter 127 voids an indemnity in an oilfield agreement if it protects the other party against its own "sole or concurrent negligence" for injury, death or property damage (§127.003), unless an exception applies. The big exception is in §127.005: the act "does not apply to an agreement that provides for indemnity if the parties agree in writing that the indemnity obligation will be supported by liability insurance coverage to be furnished by the indemnitor."

That has two practical effects on the insurance exhibit.

The limits you agree to may also be the limits of your indemnity. For mutual indemnity, the statute limits the obligation "to the extent of the coverage and dollar limits of insurance or qualified self-insurance each party as indemnitor has agreed to obtain for the benefit of the other party as indemnitee" (§127.005(b)). Courts have spent years working out what that means when the two sides carry different amounts. The Chapter 127 page walks through the cases.

One-sided indemnity has a hard ceiling. For a unilateral indemnity, where you protect the operator against injuries to your own people and get nothing back, "the amount of insurance required may not exceed $500,000" (§127.005(c)).

The statute also defines "well or mine service" broadly. It expressly includes "transporting oil, brine water, fresh water, produced water, condensate" and similar liquids, along with "furnishing or renting equipment, incidental transportation" (§127.001). Water haulers and equipment rental outfits are inside it, not just rig crews.

How the indemnity is drafted is a legal question for your attorney. Making sure the insurance actually funds what you signed is the agent's job, and that is where most contractors are exposed.

Operators negotiate more than most small contractors think, especially before the first work order. The legal department expects comments. What they do not expect is a contractor who asks for everything.

Usually negotiable

• Umbrella limit. If the requested limit is far above what your work warrants, ask for a lower figure tied to scope.
• Professional liability. Ask to strike it if you are not giving engineering or design advice.
• Notice of cancellation. Ask to change "insurer shall provide" to "contractor shall provide," since your insurer may not agree to notify third parties, and a Texas certificate cannot create that right on its own.
• Carrier rating. Ask for "or as otherwise acceptable to Company" if your best market is a nonadmitted insurer.
• Additional insured scope. Ask that AI status be limited to liability "arising out of Contractor’s work under this Agreement" and to the extent of the indemnity you assumed.

Rarely negotiable

• Additional insured status itself, primary and non-contributory, and the waiver of subrogation.
• The basic knock-for-knock structure.
• Workers comp as a condition of access to location.

How to redline

Mark the exhibit, not the certificate. Put the changes in the MSA itself or in a signed side letter. Then make sure the next certificate and endorsements reflect the agreed terms. Texas law prohibits a certificate from referencing "a legal or insurance requirement contained in a contract other than the underlying contract of insurance" (§1811.154), so the place to fix a mismatch is the policy, not the certificate wording.

Most MSAs make you responsible for your subcontractors. The "Contractor Group" in a knock-for-knock clause usually includes "subcontractors of any tier" and their employees. That means if your sub's hand gets hurt on location, the operator looks to you, and you look to your sub, but only if you wrote that down.

A clean flow-down has four pieces:

1. A written subcontract that passes down the same indemnity to you and to the operator's group.
2. The same insurance requirements, or limits scaled to the sub's scope, with you and the operator as additional insureds.
3. Waivers of subrogation in favor of both you and the operator.
4. Certificates and endorsements on file before the sub goes on location, and a calendar for their renewals.

If your sub carries a lower umbrella than your MSA requires, that may be acceptable, but you need to decide it on purpose. Anything the sub cannot cover lands on your policies.

Operators increasingly require subs to register on the same compliance platform. If the operator uses ISNetworld or Avetta, assume your subs will need to clear it too.

Auto is where trade differences show up most.

A roustabout crew in pickups usually needs a business auto policy with hired and non-owned coverage, the operator as a designated insured (CA 20 48), and an auto waiver (CA 04 44).

A water hauling or hot oil company is a different animal. If you are a for-hire motor carrier in interstate commerce, federal rules set financial responsibility minimums. Under 49 CFR 387.9, the floor for nonhazardous property on vehicles of 10,001 pounds or more is $750,000. Oil and hazardous materials carry higher minimums, $1 million or $5 million depending on the commodity, the type of carriage and whether it moves in bulk. Those are federal minimums. Operator MSAs routinely ask for more, and the umbrella has to sit over the auto.

Auto pollution is a separate question from GL pollution. A standard auto policy limits pollution coverage for what you are carrying. If you haul produced water or fluids, read do I need pollution coverage to haul produced water.

Run every new MSA through this list.

• Named insured on every policy matches the legal entity signing the MSA.
• Every policy the exhibit names exists, with limits at or above the requirement.
• GL treats the MSA as an insured contract; no contractual liability limitation.
• Additional insured: GL ongoing and completed operations, auto, umbrella.
• Primary and non-contributory on GL, auto and umbrella where required.
• Waiver of subrogation on GL, auto, Texas WC (WC 42 03 04) and equipment.
• Umbrella follows form and extends AI and contractual liability.
• Pollution: GL buyback or contractors pollution, and auto pollution if you haul.
• No exclusions that hit your actual work (XCU, underground resources, specific operations).
• Limits you are agreeing to carry are limits you are willing to have define your indemnity under Chapter 127.
• Subcontract form flows the same terms down.
• Endorsement copies saved as PDFs, ready to upload to ISNetworld or Avetta.

If any line is a "not sure," that is what our MSA review is for. Send the exhibit and your current policies, and we will mark where they match and where they do not.