Oil Field Accidents

The oil and gas extraction industry has one of the highest severe injury rates in the nation, according to an E&E News report detailing workplace injury data. According to some measures, the industry leads the pack among all industries in this category. When examining available recorded data, more severe injuries occur in oil and gas…

According to a recent lawsuit filed in District Court, attorneys for the family of a man killed in a drilling rig explosion in January 2018 claim that the operator of the oil well at the site of the accident utilized a risky drilling method in order to save money. In that accident outside of Quinton,…

Station KGOU (an Oklahoma NPR affiliate) recently conducted an interview with Sarah Terry-Cobo, a senior reporter for the Journal Record, about her story on a special group of oil field workers, known as “Hellfighters.” Hellfightersare frequently called in to handle well explosions. Ms. Terry-Cobo explained that a great deal of training is required to respond…

The practice of onshore and offshore oil extraction is a dangerous business in Oklahoma and other parts of the nation. The risks associated with tasks performed in and around oil drills are considerable. The work involves heavy equipment, combustible materials, and intense pressure. According to information gathered by OSHA, workers in the oil and gas…

Reuters news service reported in January 22, 2018, that five workers were missing after an explosion occurred in an eastern Oklahoma oil and gas drilling site. Patterson-UTI Energy, Inc. was drilling the well for Red Mountain Energy. Gas from the well was feeding the fire preventing a full search of the area. The fire was…

President Trump recently announced he is going forward with his plan to apply tariffs on imported steel and aluminum—25 percent and 10 percent, respectively. When he announced his initial plan in March, U.S. allies Canada, Mexico, and the European Union were to be exempt, but the most recent announcement includes all three. The plan has…

An oil well blowout is an uncontrolled release of crude oil. Blowouts occur when pressure release systems fail. They can also occur if a spark or flame contacts the oil or for other reasons. Oil well blowouts cause death and catastrophic injuries to workers near the scene of a blowout. Prior to the 1920s, according…

An oil rig caught fire and exploded in Wewoka, about an hour outside of Oklahoma City, and injured two workers. The explosion occurred on April 2 while workers were installing an oil and gas pumping unit near Highway 56. Two workers were injured in the accident. One was evacuated by helicopter to a hospital in…

Injured oil-field workers can sue well operators for injuries suffered on a drilling rig, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled in a unanimous decision on March 13, 2018. In December 2013, an oil field worker was hurt on a rig near El Reno and filed suit. That lawsuit led to a State Supreme Court ruling that…

On Monday January 22, 2018, five workers died in an explosion on an oil drilling rig in Oklahoma, which is being considered the deadliest oil and gas accident since the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010 which claimed 11 lives. The oil rig that exploded is owned by Patterson-UTI, a Houston-bases drilling and hydraulic fracturing company…

Every workplace carries with it some degree of risk of injury for workers, but some industries, such as oil and gas extraction, are more dangerous than others. PBS News reports that, on average, one oil field worker dies about very six weeks on the job in the Bakken fields, which tend to get a lot…