Oil & Gas

Washington – NIOSH is asking oil and gas workers for information on occupational health hazards experienced during hydraulic fracturing operations, commonly known as fracking.

Washington – Federal oversight of the oil and gas extraction industry should be rethought and potentially changed to a model used in regulating the coal mining industry, one workplace safety advocate said following the release of the AFL-CIO’s annual “Death on the Job” report.

Anacortes, WA – The Chemical Safety Board on May 1 approved what board chair Rafael Moure-Eraso called a “landmark” report on an April 2010 explosion at the Tesoro refinery in Washington state.

Washington – The Chemical Safety Board is scheduled to release the first half of its investigation reports into the Deepwater Horizon explosion at a June 5 public meeting in Houston.

Washington – A corroded pipe that had not been inspected for years was the source of the hydrogen release and subsequent explosion at the Silver Eagle Refinery in 2009, according to a new analysis from the Chemical Safety Board.

Employment is booming in the oil and gas industry – but fatalities hit an all-time high in 2012. Through efforts such as a nationwide safety stand-down in November, OSHA, NIOSH, and the oil and gas industry are collaborating to address the dangers these workers face.

Washington – A new report is calling for the Department of the Interior’ Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement to enlist the help of the offshore oil and gas industry in developing safer technology.

Washington – An OSHA-sponsored national safety stand-down scheduled for next month aims to raise awareness on hazards in the oil and gas industry in response to high fatality rates.

Falls Church, VA – Oil and gas workers are exposed to respirable crystalline silica during directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing operations, a new NIOSH study concludes.

Washington – The owner of the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 has been ordered to turn over internal investigation documents to the Chemical Safety Board in a July 23 ruling from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.