Extremely Hazardous U.S. Drilling & Fracking
From 2008 through 2017, 1,566 workers perished trying to extract oil and gas in America. About as many U.S. troops died fighting in Afghanistan during that period.
“Fatality rate nearly five times that of all industries in the United States”
Drilling is an inherently dangerous undertaking, with a fatality rate nearly five times that of all industries in the United States combined in 2014, the last year such rates on oil and gas extraction were published by the government. Production pressures — and the temptation to cut corners — intensify during boom times, as America is experiencing now due to a rush of fossil-fuel exports.
“The temptation to cut corners — intensify during boom times, as America is experiencing now due to a rush of fossil-fuel exports”
From 2008 through October 2018, the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited companies in the extraction industry for 10,873 violations, a Center for Public Integrity analysis of OSHA data found.
“OSHA cited companies in the extraction industry for 10,873 violations”
From 2008 thru October 2018
Sixty-four percent of the violations were classified by the agency as “serious,” meaning inspectors found hazards likely to result in “death or serious physical harm.” Another 3 percent were classified as “repeated,” meaning the company previously had been cited for the hazard, or “willful,” indicating “purposeful disregard” for the law or “plain indifference to employee safety.”
Texas sour gas
Report: Texas Railroad Commission is failing to regulate deadly H2S ‘sour’ gas
In West Texas oil fields, a rotten egg smelling gas is commonly released from the oil wells. It’s hydrogen sulfide and it’s as lethal as it is smelly. The Texas Railroad’s Commission is supposed to license these “sour wells” but a new report says Texas is failing to adequately regulate these sites and the toxic emissions that can have deadly consequences. Chemical Safety Board Chairperson and CEO Katherine Lemos said the oil producers in the Permian Basin should take hydrogen sulfide gas safety seriously.
“Hydrocarbons from the Permian Basin in particular are known to contain high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide that are immediately dangerous to life or health.”
Chemical Safety Board Chairperson and CEO Katherine Lemos
The Chemical Safety Board found that Aghorn Operations did not require the wearing of H2S monitors, the H2S warming beacon malfunctioned, there was no written training process for H2S leaks, and the building wasn’t properly ventilated.
VIDEO: Silent Killer: Hydrogen Sulfide Release in Odessa, Texas
Pennsylvania ‘frac out’
Greene County, PA community has questions after fracking incident at EQT well
EQT shut down a nearby fracking operation called the Lumber well. Then it restarted the operation to see if the liquids it was using there were surfacing at the abandoned well. The results were immediate, said Gillin, who’s worked in the gas industry for 25 years.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection says EQT confirmed that fracking liquids used at the Lumber Well were ‘communicating with’ — or getting into — the abandoned well. Despite this, EQT publicly says it’s not sure if the two wells were connected.
Groundwater problems tied to oil and gas are nothing new in Pennsylvania. There have been nearly 400 confirmed cases of pollution or damage to underground drinking water from unconventional shale gas since 2007.
Water Supply Determination Letters (10-page PDF)
Abandoned wells are a particular hazard in Pennsylvania, where there are hundreds of thousands of historic wells, many of them unrecorded. That’s why companies must document historic wells near their drilling sites. Gillin says the frac-out affected his neighbor’s well water, though his own appears to be fine. Others nearby have reported strange odors in their water, and pets refusing to drink it.
Ohio O&G accidents
Ohio oil and gas industry accident data boost worries about drilling under state parks
Spreadsheets show more than 800 releases of gas, oil, brine or other materials from industry activities onto the ground or into the air and water since 2018 began. Public records show Ohio regulators log hundreds of incidents each year dealing with chemical releases related to the oil and gas industry.
Such events raise critics’ concerns about plans to drill for oil and gas under state-owned parks and wildlife areas. While most problems happen at rigs and wellheads, which will be outside the parks, critics say airborne releases of methane or other chemicals would not be limited to property boundaries. And they fear that runoff could reach groundwater or surface water sources for state parks and nearby areas. More
Colorado explosions
New Study Looks at Frequency of Oil & Gas Explosions in Colorado
Published in the July issue of the journal Energy Research and Social Sciences, the report says there were at least 116 fires and explosions at oil and gas operations in the state in a 10-year period between 2006-2015. With about 53,000 active oil and gas wells in Colorado, that comes out to about 0.03 reported incidents over the course of the study. Adgate says, however, there are questions about the reporting that takes place.
Health implications
Breaking Ground: Understanding the Health Implications of Oil and Gas Development
According to Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission rules, which differ from other states, Colorado requires self-reporting only of fires or explosions that have caused harm “to a member of the general public which requires medical treatment” or “significant damage to equipment or well site.” In 42 percent of the cases studied, Adgate said, the cause of the incidents were unclear, unspecified or still under investigation.
Oklahoma rig explosion
Authorities Investigating Oklahoma Rig Explosion, Deadliest U.S. Drilling Accident in Years
Federal and state authorities are investigating the cause of the deadly explosion and fire at a natural gas drilling rig in southeastern Oklahoma on Monday. Five workers died in what appears to be one of the country’s deadliest onshore drilling accidents. The well site, located near the town of Quinton, 100 miles south of Tulsa, was operated by Oklahoma City-based Red Mountain Energy. Patterson-UTI Energy, of Houston, owns and operates the drilling rig, which exploded and caught fire. A day after the explosion, Oklahoma’s Supreme Court struck down a portion of the state’s workers compensation law, ruling 8-0 that oil and gas companies can be sued when workers are injured or killed.
Oklahoma Supreme Court (8-page PDF)
Oklahoma law holds operators responsible for well site safety, not contract drillers or oil-field service companies. A preliminary report from a commission investigator found the fire that engulfed the rig was fed by an “uncontrolled gas release.” A rig worker attempted to activate a device known as a blowout preventer to shut off the well but was unable to, the inspector reported.
Susquehanna PA death
Deadly well pad accident in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania
An investigation is underway after a natural gas worker was killed while working on the job in Susquehanna County. Cabot Oil and Gas released a statement saying that a worker was injured at a well pad along Hoag Hill Road in Rush Township early Tuesday morning. Cabot has not said how he was injured, only that the company is working with state police and OSHA.
Ohio evacuation
After more than a day, officials stop Columbiana County, Ohio gas well leak
A Columbiana County gas well belched unknown quantities of methane gas into the air for about 28 hours after a worker hit a wellhead with his truck, apparently getting it stuck there. Methane, commonly referred to as natural gas, is not only highly flammable but a health hazard and a potent greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere.
State and county officials on Tuesday imposed a one-mile evacuation zone around the well pad, operated by Houston-based Hilcorp, a major oil and gas producer. At around 1 p.m. Wednesday, the company said they stopped the flow and replaced the top structure to the well.
West Virginia explosion
Well Pad Explosion on Cherry Hill Road Near Wheeling, WV Remains Under Investigation
Two workers were hospitalized after a gas well explosion late Sunday on Cherry Hill Road outside Wheeling. Residents in the area said they were awoken by a “loud boom” and “flames going 30 feet in the air” after a gas tank at the Franz Thoman well pad exploded.
Jim Beasley, who is a resident of Oskar Place, a neighborhood located on a hill overlooking the gas well, said he woke up around 11:30 to emergency vehicles turning around in his driveway. He recalled looking out his window and seeing “flames going 30 feet into the air. I was a little concerned,” admitted Beasley. “When those explosions happen, gas can linger in the air, so I was worried about that.”
Deadly house explosion
The report states the explosion occurred due to the ignition of natural gas from lines then owned by Anadarko Petroleum Corporation and likely severed during home construction. In a statement on the probable cause of the incident, the report also reads that “the approval by local authorities to allow occupied structures to be built on land adjacent to or previously part of oil and gas production fields” without full documentation of the state or locations of the lines contributed to the accident.
NTSB Pipeline Accident Brief (7-page PDF)
It also found that the lines near the residence, which had been previously owned by Patina Oil and Gas Corporation, were not abandoned according to state regulations. Those require that lines be disconnected from the source, cleared of liquid hydrocarbons and sealed at both ends. Mark Martinez and his brother-in-law Joe Irwin were killed in the blast. Martinez’s wife Erin was seriously injured. More
Dangerous frac fueling
W.Va. Worker Sues After Well Pad Accident in Pa.
A lawsuit filed by a West Virginia worker who reports ongoing injuries from a 2018 fire at a western Pennsylvania shale gas well pad accuses an oil field company of causing his injuries through its “normal and routine practice” of fueling dangerously hot pumps while leaving them running. It names Texas-based U.S. Well Services Inc. and a local subsidiary as defendants, saying the entities were in charge of operations at CNX’s Morris 31 well pad in East Findlay Township on June 27, 2018.
The lawsuit, which was filed Monday, blames the practice known as “hot fueling” — refilling the tanks on the pumps of the hydraulic fracturing wells without halting the operation to turn them off — for injuries that Isaacs suffered during the incident. The “inherently dangerous” method was allegedly a “normal and routine” way of doing business for U.S. Well Services, according to the lawsuit.
Texas fatalities
3rd man dies after gas blast at Chesapeake Energy oil well near Bryan, Texas
A third man has died after a gas explosion Wednesday at a Chesapeake Energy oil well in Burleson County, according to media reports. Company officials could not immediately be reached for comment, but Maldonado was part of a crew working at a Chesapeake Energy oil well west of Bryan, Texas, when natural gas in the well ignited at about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Eleven people from Chesapeake, Fort Worth oil field service company Eagle Pressure Control and Alice oil field service company C.C. Forbes were working at the well at the time of the incident, a report from the Railroad Commission of Texas shows. Investigators believe that an unexpected amount of natural gas entered the well and ignited. What caused the ignition remains under investigation.
Tioga PA fatality
Gas worker dies in accident at Pennsylvania well pad
The gas well pad is operated by Shell Appalachia; Jones was an employee with Deep Well Services, 895 Cummings Creek Road, Middlebury Township. A natural gas worker at an active well pad in Middlebury Township died early Saturday morning, Oct. 27, after a large piece of equipment fell on him, pinning him to the platform 65 feet in the air where he was standing. Though Jones was pronounced dead at the hospital, Wilson said he believed the victim died at the scene.
Accident prone infrastructure
A single gas well leak is California’s biggest contributor to climate change
Rupture of Aliso Canyon well has released more than 77,000 metric tons of methane and refocused attention on America’s accident-prone infrastructure. The single biggest contributor to climate change in California is a blown-out natural gas well more than 8,700ft underground, state authorities and campaign groups said Monday.
The broken well at the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage site has released more than 77,000 metric tons of the powerful climate pollutant methane since the rupture was first detected. Locals have complained of headaches, sore throats, nosebleeds and nausea, caused by the rotten-egg smell of the odorant added to the gas to aid leak detection by SoCalGas, the utility that operates the natural gas storage site.
Pennsylvania explosion
Chevron Gives Residents Near Pennsylvania Fracking Explosion Free Pizza
After a Chevron hydraulic fracturing well exploded in rural Dunkard Township, Pennsylvania, last Tuesday, and burned for four days straight, the energy company knew just the way to soothe nearby residents: free pizza.
The flames that billowed out of the Marcellus Shale natural gas well were so hot they caused a nearby propane truck to explode, and first responders were forced to retreat to avoid injury. Seconds before the explosion, John Kuis, 57, who lives less than a half-mile away in Dilliner, said he felt rumbling.
Major Pennsylvania spill
Pennsylvania Fracking Accident: What Went Wrong
A Pennsylvania gas well operated by Chesapeake Energy erupted late Tuesday, sending thousands of gallons of chemical-laced and highly saline water spilling from the drill site, heading over containment berms, racing toward a tributary of a popular trout-fishing stream and forcing seven families nearby to temporarily evacuate their homes.
The leak happened at the Atgas 2H well in rural Leroy Township, about 175 miles northwest of Philadelphia. According to state and company officials, the failure occurred late Tuesday night when Chesapeake was in the middle of a “frack job.” The controversial practice, essential to the extraction of gas from shale, involves pumping up to a million gallons of water treated with biocides, lubricants, surfactants and stabilizers a mile or more into the ground at pressures exceeding 9000 psi.
Ohio well spewing
Unused Ohio Gas Well Spews What’s Suspected to be Frack Wate, Killing Fish
Ohio regulators are working at a gas well that started spewing what’s believed to be brine water from fracking into the environment more than a week ago. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources, which regulates the oil and gas industry, said in an email that it was notified on Sunday, January 24 that fluid, what the agency called “produced brine,” was spraying out of an oil and gas well in the Crooked Tree area near Dexter City in Noble County.
Brine is a salty byproduct of gas and oil production and can contain toxic metals and radioactive substances, according to US EPA. On Wednesday, January 27, the state was able to contain the spray in a collection system on-site, Schmelzenbach said, but not before the suspected brine killed fish in Taylor Fork, a small tributary. She said state regulators had wildlife experts at the scene. (See video in story)
Pennsylvania explosion and spill
A natural gas accident has occurred in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with toxic fluid spilling all around the site. The accident happened when a well exploded near the surface of a natural gas facility. The well is operated by Chesapeake Energy, and fracking operations were occurring at the time. Fracking materials have spilled into a local creek nearby, which flows into the Susquehanna River.
O&G worker fatalities
Problem/Condition: The U.S. oil and gas extraction (OGE) industry faces unique safety and health hazards and historically elevated fatality rates. The lack of existing surveillance data and occupational safety and health research called for increased efforts to better understand factors contributing to worker fatalities in the OGE industry.
Fatalities in Oil & Gas Extraction Database (25-page PDF)
Results: During 2014–2019, a total of 470 OGE worker fatalities were identified in the FOG database. A majority of these fatalities (69.4%) were identified from OSHA reports and Google Alerts (44.7% and 24.7%, respectively). Unique database variables created to characterize fatalities in the OGE industry (i.e., phase of operation, worker activity, working alone, and working unobserved) were identified in approximately 85% of OGE worker fatality cases. The most frequent fatal events were vehicle incidents (26.8%), contact injuries (21.7%), and explosions (14.5%).
The Energy Age 