Two Oilfield Deaths in Past Week in North Dakota

 

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North Dakota has experienced its second oilfield fatality in the past week. The latest was a 36-year-old man struck by the boom of a crane being used to remove pipe out of the ground.

He worked for a Michigan-based drilling contractor hired to perform work on the well that is owned by Houston-based EOG Resources Inc. The incident happened near Ross in western North Dakota’s Mountrail County and is under investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

An oil well explosion and fire on Saturday killed a 52 year old man from Wyoming. It happened at a well site operated by XTO Energy Inc. near Watford City. The explosion left two other workers injured with burns and they were airlifted to the Regions Burn Center in St. Paul, Minnesota where at last word, one remained in critical condition. Both suffered third-degree burns to 70 percent of their bodies.

The two deaths boosted North Dakota’s oilfield-related fatalities count to 50 since late 2010.