Oil-Worker Deaths Raise Safety Questions — Energy Journal
DEATH-CAUSE FOCUS SHIFTS TO HYDROCARBON CHEMICALS
When at least 10 U.S. oil-field workers with similar jobs died, medical examiners generally attributed their deaths to natural causes. But now government agencies and some industry-safety executives are acknowledging a pattern and focusing on the possible role of hydrocarbon chemicals, which can lead to quick asphyxiation or heart failure, Alexandra Berzon reports. U.S. agencies and industry-safety groups are planning to send out an alert to the oil industry as early as this week to warn of the potential for danger from inhaling hydrocarbons.
“There’s no question in my mind it was absolutely known” that there were dangerously noxious fumes coming from the tanks, said Dennis Schmitz, a safety consultant for oil companies in North Dakota. “You are absolutely required to evaluate that hazard before you put that employee up there.” One safety option is to use automated or remote methods to read tank levels, which is done regularly elsewhere, including Canada.
Earthquakes appear to be another danger associated with the oil industry, as new scientific findings linked quakes to injecting wastewater from oil and gas operations deep underground, Miguel Bustillo and Dan Molinski report. The findings add to a growing consensus among researchers that energy development is probably causing seismic activity in Oklahoma, Texas and other parts of the U.S. The issue is raising liability concerns for energy companies.
OIL STATES FEEL JOBS SLUMP
States that rely heavily on the oil industry experienced big job cuts in March, Josh Zumbrun reports. Job losses hit particularly hard in Texas, which lost 25,400 jobs, and Oklahoma, which lost 12,900. North Dakota lost 3,000 jobs, a large cut in such a small state. The oil-price decline is hurting the states that benefited from the domestic oil-output boom. The number of job losses in Texas is so large that the state may be in recession, said Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist for J.P. Morgan Chase.
http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2015/04/22/oil-worker-deaths-raise-safety-questions-energy-journal/
