AREA |
LAST COUNT DATE |
COUNT |
CHANGE FROM PRIOR COUNT |
DATE OF PRIOR COUNT |
CHANGE FROM LAST YEAR |
DATE OF LAST YEARS COUNT |
UNITED STATES |
5/17/13 |
1769 |
+0 | 5/10/13 |
-217 |
5/18/12 |
CANADA |
5/17/13 |
118 | +5 |
5/10/13 |
0 |
5/18/12 |
USA OFFSHORE |
5/17/13 |
52 |
+2 | 5/10/13 |
+5 |
5/18/12 |
INTERNATIONAL |
04/2013 |
1301 |
+33 |
3/2013 |
+123 |
4/2012 |
World Oilfield Forum
Aug. 30, 2011 –
Authorities won't be able positively to identify the three workers killed in an oilfield explosion in eastern Wyoming until autopsies are performed on them, a company spokeswoman said Tuesday.
The blast occurred Monday at an oil production site on a private ranch, about 40 miles northeast of Casper.
It came as the men worked on a fuel line supplying a heater treatment facility that separates oil from water as the substances are pumped from the ground, said Dennis Neill, spokesman for Samson Resources Co. in Tulsa, Okla.
The blast sparked a 10-acre fire before it was brought under control.
The names of the men killed have not yet been released. The workers were employed by contractors that Samson had hired to bring an oil well back into production at the site, Neill said. The well wasn't involved in the explosion or the fire on the Hornbuckle Ranch.
"Obviously we're very concerned about the family and friends in this situation," Neill said.
Tina Wells, spokeswoman for Samson, issued a statement Tuesday saying that the bodies of the men would be taken to Colorado for autopsy and positive identification. She said she didn't know how long it would take to identify them.
"It takes an autopsy to get a positive identification in this case," Wells said. "And the authorities will not release any notification to you of who the victims might be until they have very definitive, positive identification."
Wells said the men worked for two local construction companies, identified as Wild West Construction and Double D Welding and Fabrication. Officials with the companies and Converse County Coroner Ross Gorman could not immediately be reached Tuesday for comment.
Wells said Samson has ceased construction work on other facilities in Wyoming until a preliminary cause of the explosion can be determined.
Wyoming, a top energy-producing state, for years has ranked among the highest states in terms of per capita workplace fatalities. Wyoming lost its title as the deadliest state in the nation for workers to Montana last summer, largely due to a slowdown in Wyoming's gas industry.
The Wyoming State Senate rejected a bill early last year that would have increased employer penalties for workplace safety violations. Then-Gov. Dave Freudenthal had urged passage of the bill, which industry groups supported.
The Wyoming Department of Workforce Services reported last week that the number of occupational fatalities in the state rose to 34 last year - an increase of nearly 79 percent from the prior year. Of those 34 deaths, 10 were in the natural resources and mining sector. A new federal ranking of state workplace death rates based on per full-time worker will be available next spring, said Sara Saulcy, senior economist with workforce services.
According to preliminary figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, fatal work injuries nationwide in the private mining industry, which includes the oil and gas industry, increased by 74 percent nationwide last year to 172 deaths. Of that number, fatalities in the oil and gas industry accounted for 106, or about three-fifths, of the fatal work injuries. In 2009, 66 of the 99 mining industry deaths nationwide were in the oil and gas fields, according to BLS data.
J.D. Danni, manager of the Wyoming Occupational Safety & Health Administration program, said Tuesday that Samson hasn't received any citations from the state in recent years.
The state of Wyoming is investigating the blast through its Department of Workforce Services.
Danni said his office has two investigators on the scene to determine the cause of the explosion and whether any workplace safety violations contributed to it.
Converse County Sheriff Clint Becker said Tuesday he didn't believe there were any witnesses to the explosion.
SOURCE
Comment by tina on August 30, 2011 at 6:57pm 
Comment by eleven wang on August 30, 2011 at 7:57pm 
Comment by Bryan bellar on August 30, 2011 at 8:02pm Comment by Bryan bellar on August 30, 2011 at 8:03pm 
Comment by doug Braun on August 30, 2011 at 8:17pm 
Comment by Jorge Ayala on August 30, 2011 at 11:29pm 
Comment by DP Consultant on August 31, 2011 at 4:34am I've joined a new consulting firm and we were discussing a related issue yesterday. One of our goals is to try and get the industry to change focus. For 30 years now our industry has been run by accountants. Our leadership stopped years ago being "the patch". Now our industry is run like a collection of widely separated 7-Eleven stores. In terms of employment, this works OK for those of us who have been around, none of us need (or can) ever retire. Accountants think we are all overpaid and don't see the need to train replacements or improve anything.
An ever increasing % of the hands are clueless. The degreed accountants who run the show don't know which worms to run off and which to nurture, and they violently oppose putting new guys with experienced hands to train - that affects VARIABLE COST.
The problem is with our traditional training. It applies across the rigs, but drilling is a good example. We train the new hands real well how to handle a blowout, but we don't train them how to prevent one, or how to notice something is happening. I've seen a grizzled old driller stop and do a flow check for no evident reason, and many times caught a kick at 1 or 2 bbls. OK, half the time he was wrong and we lost a few minutes, but the other half we saved hours, maybe the well, maybe lives. The kids today don't have years of mentoring, they are lucky to get months, so they don't pick up the less obvious clues, they have to depend on the instruments, and if they do shut down for no obvious reason they get chewed by the green accountant who is in charge.
We need to ramp up training in understanding what is going on, not reacting to events.
I deal with Macondo discussions nearly daily. Even in our industry, these days it seems everyone thinks the BOP should be able to reverse a blowout. Maybe that BOP had an issue or two, but it passed tests every two weeks, and had more rams than Carter has pills. Clearly, it WOULD have stopped the blowout had they hit the button 4 hours earlier. We are lacking knowledge when nobody on the floor knows enough to see the data, interpret the data, or even realize that you can't ignore anything that isn't 150% clear and trust to luck. Trust to luck for the bit to keep drilling, the pump to keep pumping, or the pipe to last another well, not well control.
Comment by khaled Mohamed shehab on August 31, 2011 at 8:52am 
Comment by Ahmed Bakheet on August 31, 2011 at 9:55am 
Comment by Kim Mullen on August 31, 2011 at 4:47pm 
Comment by Colter j Vaught on August 31, 2011 at 6:46pm 
Comment by roberto ruiz gonzalez on September 1, 2011 at 12:36am hello friends
the industry of oil is the best rich in the country and the all sites in the word. the security in this activities is less or minim when no supervisory adecuate exist in the area of production of oiler or gas. desafortunadamente the loss of mens in the work is inevitable. thanks.
Comment by Marty N. Miller on September 1, 2011 at 8:04am God Bless thoose family members left behind..
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