In this week's news update, the rig count drops for the second straight week, and a Texas company faces a fine for serious OSHA violations for an accident that resulted in employee deaths.
A West Texas oil services company will have to pay $50,400 in fines for a well explosion that killed three workers earlier this year.
On Sept. 8, Mason Well Service was cited for six violations by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for the March accident, which killed Arturo Martinez Sr., his son Arturo Martinez Jr. and Rogelio Salgado. They were attempting to install a blowout preventer on a well in Upton County, Texas.
OSHA says five of the citations were deemed as “serious,” and one was a repeat offense. OSHA stated in the report that the company failed to separate flammable liquid sand gases from sources of ignition and it did not require its workers to wear hydrogen sulfide monitors and flame-resistant clothing.
Wisconsin County Gives up on Requiring Spill Cleanup Fund
Dane County, Wisconsin, officials are giving up on trying to force Enbridge Energy to provide stronger financial assurances for a proper cleanup of a spill from the company’s crude oil pipeline across Wisconsin.
Roger Lane, zoning administrator for the county, told the Wisconsin State Journal that it’s fruitless because of opposition from state lawmakers.
Environmentalists want Dane County to require Canada-based Enbridge to establish a $25 million cleanup trust fund in case of a spill. Enbridge says the company already has $860 million in liability insurance and could also tap federal and state cleanup funds if necessary to deal with a spill anywhere on its system.
Second Straight Week for Rig Count Drop
The U.S. oil rig count fell for the second straight week according to data released by Baker Hughes on Sept. 11.
The oilfield services company says the number of rigs exploring for oil and natural gas in the U.S. dropped by 13 to 864 last week. The company says 662 rigs were seeking oil and 202 were seeking natural gas.
Louisiana gained four rigs and California and Oklahoma each increased by one. Texas suffered another big loss, 11, last week, while Colorado, Kansas and New Mexico were down by two. Alaska, North Dakota and Ohio each decreased by one.
Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming were all unchanged.
A year ago, with oil prices about double what they are now, 1,925 rigs were active.
Lawsuit Challenging Drilling Ordinance in Texas Dropped
A lawsuit filed by the oil and gas industry hours after Denton, Texas, voters approved the state’s first ban against fracking has been dismissed.
Denton officials and the Texas Oil and Gas Association announced Sept. 17 that District Judge Sherry Shipman signed an agreed order to dismiss the suit. The suit challenged the legality of the ban. The association later amended the suit to include the moratorium the city had imposed on drilling as it reworked its entire ordinance.
The Denton City Council repealed the ban in June and adopted a new drilling ordinance in August that lifted the moratorium.
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