Oil and Gas Industry Safety & Health

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Cal/OSHA and Chevron have reached a settlement agreement for a comprehensive plan that will improve safety at the Chevron Richmond refinery and for surrounding communities. The agreement meets and exceeds California’s landmark regulation to reduce risk at refineries, which was approved by the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board in May and is currently pending approval by the Office of Administrative Law.

A report published recently by the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP) shows the need on the part of some companies to make changes, according to the organization.

During 2003–2013, fatality rates for oil and gas extraction workers decreased for all causes of death except those associated with fall events, which increased two percent annually during 2003–2013. To better understand risk factors for these events, CDC examined fatal fall events in the oil and gas extraction industry during 2005–2014 using data from case investigations conducted by OSHA.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has ordered a Texas-based company to stop new drilling on a $4.2 billion project, after one of its pipelines spilled millions of gallons of a lubricant into a half a million square feet of Ohio wetlands.

Previous research has shown that fatality rates for oil and gas extraction workers were decreasing for all causes of death except for those associated with falls. (1) A new study from National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, examined risk factors for fatal fall events in this industry during 2005-2014 using data from case investigations conducted by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).