FACTS
- Oil and gas extraction workers experience high rates of traumatic work-related fatalities. Tank gauging and sampling activities exposes workers to high concentrations of hydrocarbon gases and vapors (HGVs).
- Successful mineral exploration strategy requires identification of some of the risk sources and consider them in the decision-making process so that controllable risk can be reduced.
- Health and Safety Issues of Petroleum Extraction:
- fatigue
- motor vehicle safety
- musculoskeletal disorders
- machine safety
- noise and hearing loss and
- skin exposures
- Hazard and Dangerous Conditions in Petroleum Extraction:
- Vehicle Accidents
- Struck-By/ Caught-In/ Caught-Between
- Explosions and Fires
- Falls
- Confined Spaces
- Chemical Exposures
STATS
- More than 1,000 workers were killed in oil and gas extraction operations
- Worker fatalities also resulted from contact with objects/equipment (25%), fires/explosions (14%), exposure to harmful substances/environments (9%), and falls (8%).
- According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, the number of fatalities in the oil and gas extraction industry rose from 81 in 2017 to 94 in 2018.
- Oil production in the United States rose significantly—nearly 25%—between 2017 and 2018. Likely, an increased quantity of work and more demanding production deadlines contributed to the heightened fatality rates in 2018.
- There were fatal work injuries among workers in the mining, quarrying, oil and gas extraction industries in the United States. In 2019, there were 127 deaths in these industries, 104 of which came from oil and gas extraction industries.
- The death and injury data for 2019, shows a marked increase over the last few years. In 2017, and average of 9 out of every 100 oil and gas industry workers died; in 2018, that number had increased to 22 out of every 100.