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Why Are Oil & Gas Workers Mysteriously Dying Across America?
In July of 2012, the mother of 21-year old Dustin Bergsing filed a wrongful-death suit in Yellowstone County District Court. Bergsing died on January 7 of that year — his first child was born just six weeks prior. The cause of death was hydrocarbon poisoning. More specifically, Bergsing died from inhaling fatal amounts of petroleum vapors after gauging a crude oil tank on a Marathon Oil site in Mandaree, North Dakota. Here is what happened (from a North Dakota Supreme Court apellee brief):
Dustin Bergsing was working for Across Big Sky when he was found dead at a Marathon well-site near Mandaree, North Dakota, in the early morning hours of January 7, 2012. Across Big Sky also submitted a report of death, describing the accident happened when Bergsing was "on the catwalk and was going to gauge the oil level in the production tank."
On January 6, 2012, Bergsing left the home he shared with Lacey Breding in Montana to start his shift in North Dakota. The week before, Breding and Bergsing began making plans for their wedding, which was scheduled for June 30, 2012. The night of January 6, Breding and Bergsing were messaging each other, and Bergsing stopped responding around 9:30 p.m. The next contact Breding had was from the Dunn County Sheriff's Department at approximately 4:15 a.m. informing her Bergsing had died…
The bloodwork showed Bergsing had ethane, propane, butane, isobutene, pentane, hexane, and cyclohexane in his blood.
The concept of tank gauging is simple: workers check the level of oil in storage tanks at tank batteries by opening a hatch and putting a gauge inside. Here’s how it works:
One of the problems with manual tank gauging is that, as one might imagine, noxious vapors have a tendency to build up inside the tanks and so, when the hatches on top are opened, those vapors are suddenly released into the previously breathable air around the workers. Breathing these hydrocarbon “plumes” can lead to sudden death by asphyxiation and/or cardiac arrest. In some cases, tank gauging is done alone, increasing the risk of fatal accidents.
Nine workers have been killed over the past four years in circumstances that strongly suggest hydrocarbon poisoning as the likely cause of death, and yet so far, only one of the fatalities has been solely attributed to hydrocarbon vapor inhalation.
As far as the oil & gas industry’s position on the dangers of manual tank gauging is concerned, there appear to be two possibilities: either they did not realize that opening a hatch on top of an oil tank and looking inside might expose workers to dangerous fumes, or they did realize this and chose not to do anything about it. Here’s WSJ:
The deaths of Trent Vigus and at least nine other oil-field workers over the past five years had haunting similarities. Each worker was doing a job that involved climbing on top of a catwalk strung between rows of storage tanks and opening a hatch.
There were no known witnesses to any of the men’s deaths. Their bodies were all found lying on top of or near the tanks. Medical examiners generally attributed the workers’ deaths primarily or entirely to natural causes, often heart failure…
According to some industry-safety and government officials. The industry has been ignoring warning signs for years and has been resistant to implementing some steps that would reduce or eliminate the risk to workers.
“I was trying to get workers into respirators and all kinds of things and running an uphill battle,” said a former industrial hygienist for a large oil company who said he had noticed dangerously high hydrocarbon levels in some of his testing as far back as 2009. “They say, ‘Everyone does it this way.’ But that doesn’t make it any less right or wrong.”
Some industry officials said that companies hadn’t realized there might be a problem until the pattern of deaths began to emerge, but they now acknowledge the situation needs to be studied further.
One company that surely did “realize there might be a problem” was Marathon because, as the following excerpt from the Billings Montana Gazette details, both sides in the wrongful death suit of Dustin Bergsing agreed that hydrocarbon poisoning was indeed the cause of death and although the exact amount of the settlement wasn’t revealed, someone apparently made a payment to the family “in the seven-figure range”:
A confidential settlement has been reached in a lawsuit involving a Montana man who died working at a Marathon Oil well in North Dakota.
An attorney representing the family of Dustin Bergsing said Friday that he could not reveal any details of the settlement.
Fredric Bremseth, of the Bremseth Law Firm in Minnetonka, Minn., said only that "the case was resolved for a confidential amount”...
In pretrial statements filed by attorneys for the family and Marathon Oil, both sides agreed that Bergsing died of hydrocarbon poisoning…
The statement said Marathon Oil "knew or should have known that the oil well and tank facility where Dustin Bergsing worked was unreasonably dangerous due to the presence of a large amount of toxic hydrocarbon gases under pressure in the oil."
The statement further said that Marathon "was actually warned by an employee that the accumulation of gases at these wells was ultrahazardous, and could result in a death."
A computation of damages hadn't yet been done, the statement continued, "other than to value the case in the seven-figure range."
Fortunately for everyone in the oil & gas industry who may have been hitherto unaware that breathing hydrocarbon vapors emitted out of giant oil tanks might be dangerous, both the CDC and OSHA have put together some helpful information on the subject.
From the CDC:
NIOSH researchers, along with officials from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and members of the academic community, have continued to investigate these and other reports of worker deaths associated with manual tank gauging and sampling operations in the oil and gas extraction industry. Through this investigation, NIOSH researchers have now identified nine fatalities of oil and gas extraction workers from January 2010 to December 2014 associated with tank gauging or sampling. The degree of detailed information about each case varies but all have in common manually gauging or sampling production tanks at oil and gas well sites…
When hatches on production tanks are opened by a worker, a plume of hydrocarbon gases and vapors can be rapidly released due to the internal pressure present in the tank. These gases and vapors can include benzene, a carcinogen, as well as low molecular weight hydrocarbons such as ethane, propane, and butane. In addition to asphyxiation and explosive hazards, exposure to high concentrations of these low molecular weight hydrocarbons can have narcotic effects, resulting in disorientation, dizziness, light-headedness and other effects.
For those wondering what a deadly hydrocarbon plume looks like, here’s an infrared image which shows you just what it is that these workers are breathing when they open the hatches atop the oil tanks...
...and here is OSHA to explain exactly how the buildup occurs and what happens when the vapor is released…
Hatch is closed. No visible emissions, greater than 95% VOCs produced are controlled. Gases and vapors in tank are in equilibrium with gas and vapors in the liquid hydrocarbon. The different gases and vapors are exerting pressure on the container.
Hatch is opened. A large volume of gases (mostly propane and butane) rush out of the hatch very quickly. The “cloud” can displace oxygen in the immediate work area and presents an immediate asphyxiation hazard.
Below, courtesy of the CDC, is a list of the circumstances surrounding each of the nine workers’ deaths. Note that the fatalities are variously attributed to things like atherosclerosis, diabetes, and tobacco use. Particularly absurd is the fact that the following series of events was attributed to ischemic heart disease ("natural causes") with no mention of hydrocarbon vapors:
The employee (52 years old) lost consciousness while pulling an oil sample out of a thief hatch on a tank. The employee fell backwards on the 90 degree corner of the catwalk guardrail. The employee's clothing became hooked to the guardrail. The employee was hanged by his sweatshirt hood. From the toxicology report, autopsy, and extensive air monitoring conducted by the employer and emergency personnel it was determined this individual died from natural causes. The cause of death was sudden cardiac death due to ischemic heart disease. Contributing factors include atherosclerosis and cardiomegaly.
While "natural causes" are blamed in most of these cases, it seems to us that there is a very real possibility that most (or all) of these fatalities were the result of hydrocarbon poisoning and thus could have been entirely avoidable. Of course the likely reason why the proper solutions have not been implemented is that fixing the problem would cost money. Here's WSJ again:
Some industry experts say the industry knew the plumes could unleash potentially dangerous vapors and should have been monitoring the chemical levels all along. And, they say, companies could implement safety fixes that would reduce or remove hazards. One option is to use automated or remote methods to read tank levels. That is done regularly elsewhere, including in Canada.
“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.”
“Every hazard should be engineered out,” added Mr. Schmitz, who acknowledged that fixes would add some cost.
We'll leave you with the following quote from Dr. William Massello, a North Dakota state forensic examiner, and a forensic pathologist — these are some of the things that can happen should you inhale toxic hydrocarbon vapors right before you coincidentally die of "natural causes":
Well, as I mentioned, number one is you can have a seizure. You could have respiratory what we call respiratory arrest or respiratory paralysis, it can put you in a coma, or you can have what we call a fatal arrhythmia of the heart, the heart can quit beating normally and actually sort of fibrillate or jiggle in such a fashion that it doesn't produce any flow of blood and you die from that. And then, of course, you know, when you have fluid in your lung, this can impair the exchange of oxygen that you are going to you're not going to get enough oxygen when you breathe. And then also these components will displace oxygen from your lungs so that in and of themselves they're displacing oxygen from the lung and, as a consequence, you just don't have enough oxygen in your system. So it can be any one of these or all of these things and these can end up killing you.
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Oh, quit whining. Be thankful you have a job to die at.
/s
The proper way to check gas levels https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ukw8s5N0es
Sounds like lack of training. This is a common risk working in many industries. Any time you open a storage vessel or work inside one, you should know whats in it. Everyone whos in these situations should have a personal gas monitor.
So wheres the conspiracy here? Or is this just a commentary on the general training and welfare of oilfield workers in the US? Still miles ahead of the middle east, central Europe, Africa, China etc.
Silent but deadly!
That was gold, Bania.
Under current law, can't they put any "special sauce' into their fracking mix without disclosing what it is? And aren't there many things large companies would like to put out of sight and out of mind that aren't easily gotten rid of otherwise? You do the math now.
And we suck the fumes out in califorknee as we gas up to keep the ceo's from breathing the fumes at home, hipocrisy I say, pure and unadultarated.
NINE oil workers died in one year? More than that probably died slipping in bars on spilled beer. Or falling out of bed in a brothel.
None of these morons were smart enough to understand what was happening?
Darwin Award nominees.
Cheaper than layoffs...
Settle labor disputes quickly: Send them on a job that will silence them forever. A business plan of champions who take the low road to anywhere.
And where is fucking OSHA in all this?
Cause all the OSHA money is going to all the other stupid fucking government shit!
DEATH in the Oil Patch
OSHA-aptly named, last thing you say when you die at work "Oh SH** ah"
There is equipemt to do this shit automatically.
You are a sick pervert.................................. I like you
This argument about secret frac sauce is getting pretty tired.
Frac fluid is generally 3-4 components. Water, Propant(sand), Gel(Guar Gum comes from beans) & Biocide.
In terms or harmful chemicals used in the oil industry, frac fluid is about the most benign least harmful substance that we use.
Most of what you read about fracking is junk science/politically motivated hysteria.
Tell me more about this Biocide. Is it a delicious energy drink?
Doesn't Ricin come from beans too?
Cherry picked from a quick wiki search:
"Because biocides are intended to kill living organisms, many biocidal products pose significant risk to human health and welfare. Great care is required when handling biocides and appropriate protective clothing and equipment should be used. The use of biocides can also have significant adverse effects on the natural environment."
You see, obviously another case of politically motivated hysteria
If you're worried about the environmental effects on the poor innocent bacteria 3000 meters under ground inside an oil and gas well, I'd say you might be politically motivated or possibly hysterical.
Well don't be shy. Tell us how you feel.
I feel that something needs to motivate politicians to be hysterical and that in America 2015 this motivation always comes in the form of money, one way or another. Then, can you show us how big money is flowing into the anti-fracking movement from some shady business enterprise that feels its power is threatened by fracking, in the same manner that you can document how big money is currently being spent by oil industries in a seemingly never ending effort to smear scientists and policymakers into approving fracking? If not, I don't see why you would automatically believe in the oil industry narrative that fracking is basically harmless and that believing otherwise is politically motivated hysteria, its not like those who oppose fracking are tin-foil loons who don't have any serious scientific data to legitimize their claims.
I personally think that everyone should mind their own business.
You do understand that CORPORATIONS ARE CREATIONS OF THE VERY THE GOVERNMENTS THAT IDIOTS SUCH AS YOURSELF LOVE?
Look in a mirror. You are the problem.
When someone poisons my water and causes earthquakes that wreck the foundation of my home, I consider it my business. What are you, an energy industry troll?
Why do I believe the Oil Industry narrative? Well no one said I did. I told you my opinion about the facts that I deal with on a daily basis. Frac fluid is literally the safest fluid next to water we pump down a hole. The E-Lobby guys would have a meltdown if they had any idea what kind of chemicals are in drilling mud, cement, and stimulation fluids.
I was fracking wells before I started reading Zerohedge on blogspot, before Gaslnad came out, before all of this BS. People before me were fracking wells 30 years ago before the need for lobbyists to counter the recent surge in anti-frack hysteria. I'm positive that we will continue to frack wells 30 years after I write this.
I've tried to understand the fracking argument, but im not even aware of what it is other than "contaminates water, bad for environment, gas comes out of the faucet, oh the children" its all vague ideas with no specifics on what exactly is going on. I know the specifics of whats going on because ive been doing it for years and I have yet to see anything convincing about the fracking chemicals killing farm animals, wrecking crops, poluting water supplies. Causing earthquakes? That sounds somewhat plausible. The oil industry is one of the most heavily regulated industries in the world. John Q Public has no idea what kind of machinations we go through on a daily basis to meet all of the environmental, regulatory, engineering, and HSE requirements.
With that said, Yes, theres obviously an oil lobby. Theres also a greeny lobby funded by corporate interests.
The reality is that oil companies aren't purposely duping the public. There is no conspiracy. Following industry best practice and regulation prevents environmental damage. Spending millions to upgrade equipment and put ERPs, risk assessments, spill containment, redundant safeties in place mitigates the risk to people and environment. No oil company wants a spill, no oil company wants to pollute - The litigation costs and environmental cleanup costs just arent worth it to cut corners and save a few dollars.
Earthquakes? Maybe. Industrial accidents and pollution in some cases? Of Course - As with every industry accidents happen. Conspiracy and vast environmental damage? Definitely not.
Just my opinion.
Rgs
BT
Informative post. One of the reasons I frequent ZH is posts like this written by people in the industry, not armchair quaterbacks. Are ALL fracking fluids as benign as the ones you've dealth with?
Puzzle it out:
You're employing a process that fractures rock for the purpose of extracting hydrocarbons that are tightly bound to that rock.
In other words, you're loosening everything up, so why wouldn't some of those hydrocarbons then migrate through the now fractured rock and eventually contaminate the surrounding water table?
As for the fracking fluids, it's not what goes in, it's what comes out that you should worry about. Specifically, what sorts of chemical reactions are taking place between the hydrocabons, the host rock and the fluids, bearing in mind that these compounds are also likely to migrate through the rock?
All that aside, the depletion rate on these wells is very high, which means you have to drill lots of them to maintain production. The best you can say about that is it's a poor use of capital that leaves these ventures at the mercy of low oil prices, as we've already seen. Probably a worse return than mining stocks when you average it all out.
Finally, in a world that's literally drowning in deceit, malfeance and corruption, why should you believe ANYONE that has a vested interest in these projects?
No. Produced Hydrocarbons are not "bound to that rock". They are trapped inside pore spaces of the rock, facking connects the pore spaces an allows the hydrocarbons to flow.
Exactly, were connecting pore spaces for hydrocarbons to migrate to the wellbore. There is no "surrounding water table". The water table is many thousands of meters above in the overburden protected by countless layers of impermiable and permiable rock. Please do some reading on the vast amount of research that has gone into fracture propagation. The fracks youre worried about are in shale. The fractures propagate through the path of least resistance laterally through the formation. There is no frack pump or technology anywhere on earth that can frack vertically through mediums of different pressures, densities and matrix to the water table.That is ridiculous, and one of the things most people in my industry facepalm the public over.
Alright, youre close here but off the mark, let me explain: contaminated brine, and water is a byproduct of almost EVERY WELL. Even if the well was never fracked it can still produce toxic brines and contaminated water. Depending on where you are, water cut can be very high. There are conventional (non-fracked)wells that produce hundreds of barrels of contaminated toxic water all day long every day for decades. Mature oil fields produce more water than oil.
So now that weve established contaminated water is not exclusive to fracking but actually a common byproduct of many oilfields, let me explain what they do with it: it gets treated and put back into the environment, recycled for other uses, orrrrrrr injected into a water flood or disposal well. Exactly the same as frack water. Theres no difference.
Finally, Yes. The water and hydrocarbons migrate. They migrate into the well bore. No they dont migrate through 3 kms of impermiable rock into the water table.
Ofcourse there are different shades of grey, but on whole i generally agree with you there. My mining stocks suck :'(
Dont trust me. Figure it out on your own, do your own research.
One last point, the old gas in the water table argument is possible. This has everything to do with poor well construction, and nothing to do with fracking. A normal conventional oil gas well will leak into and polute an aquifer just the same if the cement job and successive casing/liners were not done properly. These problems very well could be real, however they are not fracking specific. Thats why most countries have specific regulations requiring the setting of surface casing at a certain depth among many other regulations.
I wanted to give you a greenie but since you started with an italic character it disables the buttons.
I don't post much, thanks for the tip.
Rgs
BT
Your welcome.
Granted not all the oil is chemically bound, but a significant amount is.
http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2012/09/losal-clair-ridge-bp-oil-extra...
"The researchers found that oil molecules are bound to clay particles within sandstone by divalent cations, such as calcium and magnesium, and in high salinity water the oil strongly adheres to the surface of the clay. However, when the salinity is lower, the divalent cations are swapped for monovalent ions such as sodium, breaking the bond and allowing the oil to be swept towards the well."
"The water table is many thousands of meters above in the overburden protected by countless layers of impermiable and permiable rock."
http://www.pnas.org/content/110/28/11250.full
"In addition to well integrity associated with casings or cementing, two other potential mechanisms for contamination by hydraulic fracturing/horizontal drilling include enhancing deep-to-shallow hydraulic connections and intersecting abandoned oil and gas wells. Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing can stimulate fractures or mineralized veins, increasing secondary hydraulic connectivity. The upward transport of gases is theoretically possible, including pressure-driven flow through open, dry fractures and pressure-driven buoyancy of gas bubbles in aquifers and water-filled fractures (44, 45). Reduced pressures after the fracturing activities could also lead to methane exsolving rapidly from solution (46). If methane were to reach an open fracture pathway, however, the gas should redissolve into capillary-bound water and/or formation water, especially at the lithostatic and hydrostatic pressures present at Marcellus depths. Legacy or abandoned oil and gas wells (and even abandoned water wells) are another potential path for rapid fluid transport. In 2000, the Pennsylvania DEP estimated that it had records for only 141,000 of 325,000 oil and gas wells drilled historically in the state, leaving the status and location of ?184,000 abandoned wells unknown (47). However, historical drilling activity is minimal in our study area of northeastern Pennsylvania, making this mechanism unlikely there."
Yup. All thats true.
First off you're reading from an article about water flooding sandstone reservoirs in the north sea. This is conventional oil and gas, nothing to do with fracking.
Secondly what the article is refering to is the wetability of the matrix. The matrix being the structure of the reservoir - You can only produce the freely moving fluids - ie there will always be a thin film of water or oil left described as the wetability. The ideal situation is that you have water wet matrix so all of the oil will come out. This article is talking about a reservoir with an oil wet matrix
Thirdly, the quote you posted is talking about reducing the salt content of the water flood to the reservoir. IE using fresh water. What's your point here? Wheres the fracking connection?
Your last quote is certainly possible. Fracking next to an abandoned well is asking for trouble. Theres many recorded cases of communication from one well to another during a frack job.
Fracture propagation:
http://www.slb.com/resources/publications/oilfield_review/~/media/Files/...
I guess what im really trying to say is that fracking specifically is not the problem. Drilling for oil in general is a problem. Theres really nothing specific about fracking (except the earthquakes!) that makes it any more or less risky than drilling other types of oil and gas wells.
So I'll just sum up:
1.) Fracking (specifically water disposal wells in Oklahoma) causes earthquakes
2.) The oil industry is dirty
3.) The oil industry doesnt want to pollute your backyard
4.) The people that work for oil companies that do the engineering and execute the work are good people that aren't part of a massive conspiracy
5.) F** Abiotic oil
6.) If there was some environmental damage due to an oil and gas well the company that drilled and completed that well surely did not follow good industry practice. Accidents happen. The vast majority of oil and gas work in north america is environmentally responsible.
Rgs
BT
You can frack with any fluid. Hell you can frack with gas. You can frack with radioactive sewage if you want to, the question is why would you?
The fluids only job is to suspend the propant evenly and deliver it to the fractures.
Chemicals are added to reduce friction, viscosify/gel, kill bacteria, prevent corrosion, increase the fluid density , prevent the shale from reacting etc. At the end of the day its still 99% water.
The most dangerous fluid would be an acid frac/matrix job. Hcl and formic acid. Smells great.
I'm happy to see someone besides me on this site from the industry who actually knows what goes on. I'll drill 'em, you frac 'em. Or, let these idiots freeze in the dark.
Absolutely Dave. Me too.
I work for a company that supplies silica sand and resin coated sand proppants. I get so tired of reading uninformed regurgitations of fractivist propaganda on ZH. Would have thought there would be a few more critical thinkers opining here to put to bed the "flaming water tap" conspiracy fear-mongerers.
http://www.psehealthyenergy.org/events/view/185
YOU are a murdering LIAR.
I never lie. And I've never murdered anyone.
You attached a link to a website hosted by some leftists at UC Berkeley without any scientific data or analysis; and you expect us to accept this fractivist propaganda as fact?
Crawl back under your rock.
"...uninformed regurgitations of fractivist propaganda..."
Peer reviewed scientific study right here:
http://www.pnas.org/content/110/28/11250.full
I second Broken_Trades above. You clearly have no idea what you're reading when you look at the content of that link you posted. Twice.
Works best to break the formation down with acid before putting in gel, water and propant. This is how slick water fracs get the best production.
Assuming youre talking about a carbonate? Never used acid on a shale before.
Acid doesn't work in shale.
The EPA was created, solely, to protect the big interests. Now that prices are falling, it's time for them to pile on more regs.
Don't. Fat BB counter-intelligence!
Can it be bottled and let loose at an investment bankers confab and exposition on Wall Street?
Finally, someone asked the right question.
Doesn't Ricin come from beans too?
You will need to ask Heisenberg about that...
Ricin comes from seeds not beans. Same goes for coffee.... (sorry for the idiot correction, bad mood today.... and congratulations, you're my first target of the day... :)
You clearly have no fucking idea what biocide is.
I one a year flush my emergency desalinator with biocide, as advised.
You're a lying piece of shit. Since you want to know how I really feel.
I gave you an upvote.
I gave a downvote since you believe that votes, validation, or consensus have any meaning.
Only women seek validation....or girly men.
Does it gots what plants crave?
"The workers were killed by a special sauce added to the tanks by Reggie and Barry."
H2S
Look it up
"Nine workers have been killed over the past four years"
Something like 50,000 people die everyday worldwide, hundreds of thousands of Americans die every year due to their diet and lack of excercise.
For people specifically working in this industry, sure, it is a concern that needs to be addressed. Not exactly a world-changing revelation.
"thousands of Americans die every year due to their diet and lack of excercise" BINGO !
there are many fat asses everywhere one looks and likely quite a few right here at ZH where there is so much brain power ? Hey. What if we actually gauged intelligence by our actual health and fitness and well being ? Ponder that because I think it is only real gauge when all is said and done ! But you are free to do as you please ................. kinda, with big brother and all.
Who would you appoint as the final arbiter to decide what constitutes healthiness and fitness? I probably only need one guess.
You can have your knee pounding with your breakfast of tofu and sunflower seeds, I'm sticking with smoked bacon or sausage, 3 eggs over easy, grits, biscuits and red eye gravy. Since coffee is unhealthy, I like a couple beers to wash it down. Brewers yeast and eggs are the most complete foods you can consume. Piss on Wheaties.
BTW, Winston Churchill says hello. The cigars, obesity, stress and martinis prematurely killed him.....age 90 yrs.-2 mos. Had he not had those vices he could have lived a whole month more, MAYBE.
Seriously, I believe that genetics play a much larger role in health and longevity. Fitness is a subjective concept, IMO, I'm certain you disagree.
So here's me.
60 years old - fitter than most at 30
Cycle 100 miles a week on average.
Hike for miles in the woods on weekends.
With you on the brakfast thing.
Doesn't matter how much fat or sugar you eat, so long as you burn it all.
Keep well away from packaged food - if you can't pronounce the names of the ingredients in something you probably shouldn't eat it!
Aaah, so then its no worry if I only kill something like nine persons, excellent news, I know exactly where I will be starting. Or wait, does this logic only apply to murder by negligence?
gwk, "murder by neligence", is that it?
Or, is it on the level of event, like the BP-GoM, or the even moar sinical one, mass migration?
Negligent homicide is a felony. It is also known as involuntary manslaughter,
WTF...Who cares about the law when you are a CEO of a corporation in an industry that is considered as too big to fail?
For the rest of you wage slaves...DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. They will cage your ass so that Devon has some virgin tight ass fish to exploit.
The Bakken was the biggest killer of all of the oilfields in this boom. There is a hell of a lot more dead than 9, there were at least 40 deaths from workplace injuries in the Bakken alone and 9000 injuries. There is also a new cancer in the Bakken area which is afflicting children, it grows around internal organs. H2S is one hell of a drug, it can kill instantly or slowly over time. There was a foreign documentary made on the subject but it is no longer available for viewing in the US.
Everybody who works in the oilfield knows it's a game of Russian roulette and bears personal responsibility for making that choice. That is no excuse however, to be a corporate shill and act as if the industry is safe and pretend as if people and communities are not disposable to the industry. Keep in mind the people shilling about the omnipotence of the shale oil companies are also the same crowd that thought the boom would last forever.
Another question, why was this documentary scrubbed off the internet? I know of one of these cases personally and it was dead accurate reporting? How is it that US media isn't covering this?
http://www.midwestenergynews.com/tag/north-dakota/
The story is the 4th one from the top and as you can see the documentary is no longer available in the US.
We service these industries, and most companies supply gas meters to the appropriate people. The standard is a 4 gas meter. H2S is a problem not just for this industry, but for anybody that is around decomposing organic material. Sewer workers die from this too, and I can assure you that the oil/gas industry is far more aware (and proactive with regards to employee safety) than the general contractor industry.
I work around pressurized systems all the time, it's ridiculous that they havent come up with a safe venting system BEFORE they open the hatch, mind boggling
They don't smell anything in the boardroom so the problem is minimized and forgot in about 2 days.
The deadly thing about H2S is that the nose can readily detect it in the parts per million range but if it gets up into the range of percentages, the nose won't pick it up.
Also, there have been many killed going into storage tanks that were purged by nitrogen which constitutes 80% of the air. No oxygen and the worker passes out and dies and others have died going in to save them. Training is the key.
Only each others farts!
Board rooms tend to remember 7 figure payouts that aren't made to them!
Um I might be stupid Jennie - but how about a bleed off valve?
The tanks aren't pressurized. They have vents. There's nothing to bleed off. Use proper safety proceedures and this won't happen.
Probably best to sample those things in a supplied air respirator. A lot of the fracked wells produce crude oil with lots of light ends and lots of heavy ends and not much in the middle. Entrained propane and butanes offgas very easily.
Why don't YOU come up with one?
I suspect that a government agency is what really is at fault here.
Fifty or sixty years ago these tanks were vented to the atmosphere so no pressure could build-up.
There was a float in the tank attached to a cable that went through the tank top and around a pulley. The cable was attached to a guided pointer that was matched to a fixed scale that could be observed and "read" at a safe distance. The indication was inverse to the actual level but this was accounted for on the scale.
It looks to me that since these tanks are no longer vented I smell an EPA CFR regulation ("fugitive emissions") at work here. Something that in the past that was reasonably safe has been converted into a death trap by government regulation? We should send an EPA or OSHA rep. up on the catwalk to show us how to gauge the tank level!
I run into this government crap all the time in industrial facilities, but on government sites none of it applies.
There are also a wide variety of level measuring instruments that have been available for decades that can be read remotely and continuously monitored. Sending personnel out to do this is unbelieveably hazardous and stupid, which is why I suspect government involvement.
The same .gov that brought us these new pain-in-the-ass 5 gal gas cans that spill/leak more than the old ones fumed off...
I say this every time i have to gas up the lawn mower, I got relocated last year and had to buy a new fucking gas can. Wish they made a gas can that grown ups can be trusted with instead of the POS ones that are gov mandated...
Without mentioning names, the company I once drove for had a seasonal demand for heating oil which was hauled in the same trucks as used for gasoline. The proper proceedure was to flush the trailer when switching from gasoline to heating oil, but no one ever did that, and the company never enforced it because it saved tihem time and money. Sound familiar?
The end result was a spill of accumulated gasoline that was floating on top of the heating oil when the storage tank was full. Why? Because the tank gauge was calibrated for heating oil which is heavier than gasoline. Fortunately there was no fire, but there very well could have been.
That's why you do a manual gauge of your tanks.
I worked in the distribution side of the industry for ten years and could fill this thread with horror stories of what went on, but I'll just leave it at that.
Oh, what the hell, one more can't hurt.
Ship I worked on was stripping tanks, basically cleaning out the last cargo to make way for the next. Work had been done the previous week for a leaking valve in the pump room. Valve replaced, but a seal was not installed properly. Tank room was supposed to be inspected every half-hour while stripping, but the guy whose job it was didn't do it. Guess he didn't like climbing up and down all those stairs.
Result: Water level in pump room rose to the height of the bushings seperating the pumps from their electric motors on the other side of a bulkhead, which allowed a film of gasoline to enter the engine room bilge. Those motors had a nice blue arc on them which you could see just by peeking in the side. In other words, the entire engine room could have been consumed in a flash fire and everyone in there killed. Fortunately it was noticed in time because the engine room watch WAS on the job.
I was almost asphyxiated on that ship, BTW, when the bosun and I went down in a hold to clean out sand residue from a previous sandblasting job, but that's a tale for another day.
They still use those kind of tanks. They need to be sounded by a person to determine where the water/oil level is. This is done by dropping a steel tape coated with color kut It changes colors when it contacts water. Sending personnel to do this is not unbelieveably hazardous or stupid. Unless the personnel don't follow their safety proceedures.
Why the hell aren't the storage tanks vented to the atmosphere all the time? Why are they hermetically sealed?
The underground gas and diesel storage tanks at your local petrol station are vented, what's different about crude oil?
Tell that to those guys that died
What we need is a new government agency to train these folks on how to open the hatch properly
Used to be a field engineer in the petroleum equipment industry.
Training and safety are routinely forgone if it is inconvenient or deemed too expensive.
Accidents are more common than you'd expect in a huge industry that is highly regulated, but are usually blamed on other than the real root cause.
"Accidents are more common than you'd expect"
Definitely my experience in the downstream side. No reason to believe upstream is any different.
Get into this in more detail and it was probably Hydrogen Sulfide that killed these people. It's not uncommon in crude storage tanks. Personnel are trained and made aware of the dangers. I've never worked for Marathon but every operator I have been around trains their people about H2S. Now, the reality is that most guagers work alone. They make their rounds in the field from tank to tank. After awhile they get complacent going to the same tanks, finding nothing dangerous and quit putting on the masks or using detectors. I wouldn't automatically blame oil companies. You are responsible for your own actions.
^^^^ +1000 ^^^^ SPOT ON... Hydrogen Sulfide is an instant death upon breathing in just one breath.
My question is: why now? If they have been doing this for years, surely other workers would have died consistently in the past as well.
So, is there some new additive in the gas that might be causing this? Are all the guys who died also, say, pot smokers and something about the combination did them in? There has to be something else new for all this to suddenly start happening.
Loss of institutional knowledge, stupidity is contagious, the rise of the quota monkeys, whatever the cause is... it is HUMAN in nature, not TECHNOLOGICAL.
My father's summer job during in university (early 60's) was exactly this, except he was driving around Texas (hungover, if not still drunk) in a pickup by himself checking on pumps and tanks (pressurized/heated by the Texas sun) with no PPE, and since this was before digital & wireless doo-das - I got the "young ones don't know shit and couldn't march in newspaper shoes to save their miserable lives" lecture when I started my college internship three decades later.
Exactly, well put B_T - I currently preform work in various plants (Exxon/Dow/Kinder Morgan/Marathon/Sunoco etc) lining the inside of tanks with anti-corrosion coatings - it is required to wear a 4-Gas monitor... not to mention per OSHA standards you are required to have another worker or "Hole Watch" staying outside the tank to make sure this exact thing does not happen.
Hate to say it, but these cases of workers dying is most likely from negligence on their part. Every plant requires you to watch a "Safety Training Video" in order to perform work onsite and this topic is covered in every video i have watched.
No conspiracy here - simply negligence on their behalf...
Earlier I mentioned that I was nearly asphyxiated in the hold of a tanker.
Work leader in that instance was the ship's bosun (tough guy/can-do attitude/laughed in the face of danger). Hold was supposedly tested for gas concentrations by deck officer "supervisiing" from above, but with divided attention as he was also supervising loading of a different hold. We had no breathing gear, as required, no gas detector, as required, and no rescue equipment on deck, as required.
After about ten minutes I felt dizzy and vision started blurring. Advised bosun who gave me the tough guy talk. Said fuck you, I know what I'm feeling and I'm getting out of here. Almost didn't make it up vertical ladder - would have been killed or seriously injured if I fell. Bosun followed me out. No more tough guy talk when he reached deck - he was as sick as I was.
I was a raw newbie at the time and this was a rush job, as most were on that and other ships I worked on. The responsibility in that instance lay with the ship's captain for not resisting the pressure from ship's owner to get 'er done. Captains are a dime a dozen and it takes most of a man's career to get there, so you don't get too many who will buck "the system."
I transfered from deck to engine crew shortly afterwards, mostly to get away from that bosun, but also because engine room was a safer environment and the people there more knowlegable and less pushy.
I'll just add that the ship owner was an oil major, and that most oil majors now contract that work out, having divested their fleets many years ago. Same goes for the trucking side, where I worked after my time on the ships. I left the industry for good when they went to contractors (who IMO are even worse).
One last point. Remember Captain Hazelwood of the Exxon Valdez? Well, there were lots of fuck-ups like him where I worked. On one ship, the engineer on my watch was a terminal drunk, just a couple of years away from retirement. Half the time I was alone on watch because he'd be passed out in his bunk. Other engineers would cover for him, but plenty of times I was down there alone, including when we had a blackout and a failure of the main boiler. 19 years old, only a few months experience at the time. To give you an idea of how insane that was, here's a photo of a ship of similar size:
http://www.cfsb.com.tw/h006ae.html
Its called confined space training
heh, heh....btw that was a shitty thing to say.
yeah ... the unemployed are known to get testy.
Speaking of shitty, this article reminded me for some reason of the X-Files episode where the poor Russian bastard got pulled into the shit tank on a freighter and eaten by the flukeman. I guess there are worse ways to go than being suddenly asphyxiated by poisonous fumes.
Germans and jews come to mind.
Yah and especially don't go whining for any goobermint regulation. OSHA = satan. Better to die a free man than live with a goobermint-mandated breathing apparatus strapped to your snout.
These MOTHERFUCKERS !!! THESE COCKSUCKING, GREEDY MOTHERFUCKERS !!!!!
FOR FUCK'S SAKE...THERE'S A WARNING STICKER AT EVERY GAS STATION IN THIS FUCKING COUNTRY WARNING PEOPLE ABOUT NOT BREATHING IN THE GAS VAPORS.
AND THESE COCKSUCKING MOTHERFUCKERS DIDN'T THINK THERE WAS A PROBLEM ???
In China...these motherfuckers would DIE !!
You seem upset...
Sorry....was channeling Sam Kinison.
Workers are apparently cheaper than a breathing apparatus.
Class action lawsuits will change that notion.
"Better Call Saul"
They are not. Quit being a dick.
Fuck you.....it's the only thing I'm good at. Don't take that away.
I wasn't talking to you. But you do seem good at it.
The writer could have just said, some oil workers have found a way to take "huffing" to a whole new level.
Having worked as a roughneck in the '70s, it always went with the territory.
Sorry folks. Nothing to see here. Move along.........STOP GLOBAL WHINING!
Only thing different is that some of these frac 'oil' wells are capturing lots of intermediate vapor pressure products, stuff that used to be flared off with abandon. Especially if the frac is done by liquid butane/propane.
Oil two miles underground is a lot like an unopened bottle of Coke. When you drill the well and that oil comes to the surface it is like taking the cap off of the Coke bottle. The gas comes out of solution due to lower pressure. Some of the gas comes out immediately. That's the part where you pour the Coke in a glass and it fizzes up and over the top (flaring). You get a phone call and let the glass sit on the counter for an hour (oil holding tank). When you go to drink it, it isn't flat. There is still gas in the solution. This doesn't have anything to do with fracing...but it does have a lot to do with PVT.
There is a correct way to do every job. Light a match so you can see the oil level in the tank.
... and such a quick and easy fix too...
We used to hang a lit kerosene lantern on a string down the silo to check for silo gas (carbon dioxide) before climbing in or messing around by an open hatch. If the lantern went out there was silo gas and it wasn't safe. Pretty low tech, but it worked. Should work to check for propane & butane too.
Safety First!
Low Tech. Lets see, we lower an open flame into a closed space we suspect is filled with volatile hydrocarbon fumes. What do we expect? BIG BANG. I think NOT.
Its not like no one knows that OIL gives off fumes that are carcenogenic, tetrogenic and god knows what all else.
No exec goes around sniffing tanks. Ever wonder where birth defects come from? I don't. Utter and total bullshit on the part of oil companies. As well everyone knows oil is toxic just like Monsanto's SAFE Roundup.
http://denaliguidesummit.blogspot.ca/
Lets see, we lower an open flame into a closed space ...
You do realize you just got trolled, right?
.
http://denaliguidesummit.blogspot.ca/
You probably didn't have an overpopulation problem in your day either... Things were nicely .. balanced..
No doubt there is a premium paid at the refinery for the most volatile stuff, so they try to keep it intact as much as possible
One thing that might have changed since the '70s (or '90s) is increased pressure to operate the vent/safety valves on the tanks, making it that much worse when manually checking a tank.
(If so - blame the tree huggers)
On the other hand, this raises some serious questions as what sort of devolved, deranged and debrained 'Muricans can now get jobs that actually require a bit of skill and common sense. - "Don't breathe it, and Don't light up next to it." was covered before even entering the property for the safety class on day 1 way back when...
Hmmmm, it's not H2S?
My first thought. H2S
No smoking around any of it, .
I remember old timers cutting cigarette holes in their monkeys though.
Probably was H2S.
File this under "Duh".
Have these people never worked with Ammonia and tried to inhale the not-for-consumer version?
Worker and supervisor alike should have been sharp enough to see this problem.... Oh wait, I forget this is America, where you are paid not to think and punished for speaking up. Ah, I take it all back, file this under, "Amazing that Americans figured it out so quickly."
The dream job for this guy.
Wait and see what happens they lift the lid of the Federal Reserve.
The lid on the Fed has been open a while, but it seems the population actually enjoys the smell of steaming shit in the air.
Money trickles up to WS.
The stuff you are describing trickles down on US Public.
An audit can kill you. The Federal Reserve won't allow it.
" Coal tar vapors are as safe as drinking a gallon of Roundup. "
And on a More at Home... perspective...
always stand upwind, when pumping your gas at a Filling Station
brain damage, is a terrible inconvenience...
Way too late on that count, Mr HAwk.
Same reason those rail car explosions look like WWII footage of straffing an ammunition train.
There's something in the chemical mix of the frack spray that causes a gas build up. That is why you see those huge roiling flame balls.
Please explain what "frack spray" is.
My wife complains that I offer the same threat.
would it cost that much more to add a ventilation valve or just use a mask??
jeez!
How about installing a gauge and a vent? In this day and age it's amazing that the thing doesn't self-check at predetermined time and e-mail the findings to a computer or smart phone.
You mean like the gauge and vent that are required on every fuel tank for home heating oil?
There aren't any "mysteries" here.
1. There will always be a certain amount of vapors at the top of a tank of fuel, especially if there is no vent.
2. CDC is a another corrupt, dangerous govt outfit with an agenda that usually gets things wrong.
Death by "natural" cause. Kinda like comiting suicide with a nail gun, eight times in the back of the head!
Look, it's perfectly natural to die after your lungs have been half-filled with vaporized petroleum byproducts.
It's organic.
You really are good at being a dick. But I like your sense of humor.
Pssst...water is wet.
No risk, no reward, right? Oh wait, that was before bailout nation...
Because their bodies are now all fracked up?
Did you miss the part where the workers refuse to wear Respirators? Dumb is as dumb does. Nature takes care of the rest.
Worked on a floating oil storage facility in the persian gulf in the 70s and realized oil is like a warm soda, with all kinds of gasses flooding out. I could see the vapors constantly streaming out of the escape valves on deck and could never figure out why we didn't blow sky high. Now I jog near construction of a salt dome storage facility for ngl's with several drilling rigs going and prominent signs warning of hydrogen sulfide gas danger -- thanks psx!
The good news is that if H2S is present, you'll smell it. The bad news is if H2S concentration is high enough, you'll smell it only once.
You won't actually smell the concentration of H2S that can kill you. That's why there are sniffers installed all around the rig when drilling in an H2S area. If you do smell any, you are indeed a goner.
I was wondering why Hydrogen Sulfide was not the concern. Fracking wells in some areas are known to go through periods during their product lives where the gas is prevalent Our county FDs all have H2S sensors for this purpose.
That is some bad stuff.
I've had to bail on an alarm and on a Chlorine leak. We had to get a guy out of the bottom of an elevator quick because of the Chlorine.
Nasty stuff.