Oil and gas production safety has been a major issue since 11 workers died when the semisubmersible rig drilling BP PLC's Macondo deepwater well exploded on Apr. 20. Federal lawmakers and regulators focused immediately on offshore workplaces. A smaller federal agency, meanwhile, has continued to warn about another production site safety problem.
US Chemical Safety Board Chairman Rafael Moure-Eraso urged Mississippi legislators on Apr. 19 to consider requiring public safety measures at rural locations and be "the champion of oil site safety for the rest of the country."
He spoke at a meeting in Jackson called by state Sen. Billy Hudson (R-Hattiesburg) who is considering introducing such legislation. The initiative follows an Oct. 31, 2009, gas condensate tank explosion in Carnes, Miss., which killed two boys, aged 16 and 18.
CSB has found similar accidents that took people's lives at other rural sites. The children, teenagers, and young adults who have died or been seriously injured apparently were not aware of the significant hazards.
In an investigation, CSB learned that 26 similar accidents killed 44 teenagers and young adults at US production sites since 1983. Since 2003 alone, it said, such explosions and fires have killed 16 people under the age of 25.
They include a 2003 explosion in Long Lake, Tex., which killed 4 teenagers; one in Ripley, Okla., in 2005 which killed a 19-year old and a 20-year-old; one in Mercedes, Tex., in 2007, which killed 3 teens; and one in Colorado's Routt National Forest in 2007, which killed 2 teens.
Educational video
At an Apr. 13 news conference, CSB released a video, "No Place to Hang Out: The Danger of Oil Well Sites." It also began working with US and Canadian university educators on developing a lesson plan to go with the video.
The following day, CSB investigators learned of a similar accident that killed a youth in Weleetka, Okla., after he and his friends gathered at an unsecured oil and gas site late one night, and the victim tried to light a cigarette.
When OGJ first brought CSB's concerns up with some of its industry sources, they pointed out that the incidents involved trespassers. Responsibility for keeping them out may rest with property owners and not producers, they suggested.
CSB wants the dialogue to grow. "I encourage the oil and gas industry, state legislatures, and federal and state regulators to learn from these tragedies and to take immediate action," Moure-Eraso said. "The lives of too many young people are being lost when they could be easily saved by securing the sites with fences and warning signs."
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