Oil Rig Worker Injured Near Piedmont

The Patterson Drilling company could be in store for another federal investigation following a Sunday night incident that left a worker injured at an oil-drilling rig near Piedmont.

Patterson is the same company that owned the rig that blew up last month and killed 5 workers near the southeast Oklahoma town of Quinton.

The Sunday night incident occurred near Ash and Richland Road in northwest Piedmont where firefighters were called to make a rescue of the injured worker. The fire department indicated the worker was injured by falling pipe and was transported to a trauma center in Oklahoma City. He was said to have suffered serious injuries.

OSHA and the U.S. Chemical Safety Board are still investigating the deadly explosion of a Patterson drilling rig near Quinton. The last update from the CSB stated that Patterson-UTI Drilling Company, LCC was the drilling contractor of the Pryor Trust 0718 1H-9 well.

In the report, the CSB indicated “the drilling contractor also has more direct control over the primary operations (drilling) and emergency response (well control).

Patterson-UTI had drilled another well at the site earlier without incident. The drilling of 1H-9 began Jan. 11, 2018. The explosion and fire occurred as the rig crew had pulled the drillpipe and associated drilling tools out of the well in preparation to change out the drill bit