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Coverage of energy that moves beyond polarized arguments and emotional debate to explore the points of tension, the tradeoffs and opportunities, and the very human consequences of energy policy, production, use and innovation.Inside Energy is a collaboration of seven public media outlets in the nation's energy epicenter: Colorado, Wyoming and North Dakota.

North Dakota Tops Oil And Gas States In Fatalities

Lindsey G
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Flickr - Creative Commons
A rig worker in Williston, North Dakota, pictured in June 2011.

North Dakota is the most dangerous state in the country for oil and gas workers. In 2011-2012, there were 75 deaths per 100,000 workers. In the next closest state, West Virginia, there were 37.5 per 100,000 workers. Colorado was lower with 14.2 per 100,000 and Wyoming is a third of the national average with 8.1 deaths per 100,000 workers.

To understand why the oil and gas industry here is so dangerous, you can go to the heart of the boom: Williston, North Dakota.

The streets are crawling with trucks in Williston – semis hauling water and muddy pick-ups carrying oil field workers. DeAnn Clark watches the traffic from behind the counter at Arnie's Motorcycles, where oil and gas workers make up about a third of the business.

"They just kinda tear off out into the street," she said. "'Oh that one will be back,' we're thinking, all wrecked up. And sometimes they are."

This culture of risk taking contributes to the high fatality rate in the oil and gas industry around the country. According to a recent report by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, half of the oil and gas workers who die in vehicle accidents weren't wearing seat belts. Teresa Van Deusen sees it all the time in her job as safety specialist for WPX Energy, a large oil company here.

"Workers, especially new workers, have the go-get 'em kind of attitude," she said. "They think, 'Oh I can do that. I can do this little shortcut.' Well, when you're working with the pressures and dangers that are inherent to the oil field, you can't do shortcuts."

At a recent meeting of industry safety professionals put on by the MonDaks Safety Network –  an all-volunteer organization founded in Texas in 2003 by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and members of the oil and gas industry to address injuries and deaths among workers – many people said inexperience played a large role in the state's high fatality rate.

"The experience level of our entry-level employee is significantly lower than the individuals or companies I visit with in Texas or Colorado," said Scott Rogers, an industrial hygienist and occupational safety consultant from Bozeman, Montana.

Rogers, who works with oil companies in the Bakken shale formation, said the problem extends to workplace safety professionals, too.

Credit Jordan Wirfs-Brock / Inside Energy
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Inside Energy

Dennis Schmitz, the head of MonDaks, said another part of the problem is that most oil and gas companies are unlikely to ever have a safety inspection in North Dakota – even though OSHA has hired more inspectors recently and created specific programsthat target the oil industry.

"You probably almost have better odds of winning the lottery than getting a visit from a regulatory agency," he said.

For Schmitz, the root of the problem is that in onshore drilling operations, big oil companies aren't directly responsible for workplace safety. They contract out most every dangerous job on an oil well to smaller companies.

When asked if there was there anything companies like hers could do to help smaller contractors be safer, Teresa Van Deusen of WPX Energy said she wasn't sure how to answer the question.

"We do everything that we can," Van Duesen said. "Obviously that is the drilling company's employee."

WPX, she said, follows all the OSHA standards and expects the contractors to do the same. But ultimately, the contractor is responsible for training its employees.

At the state level, North Dakota has many worker safety programs in place. Companies with good safety records enjoy lower premiums on their workers' compensation insurance and there's grant money for safety training. According to Governor Jack Dalyrmple, these incentives are "a better approach to workforce safety" than stricter OSHA enforcement.

"We feel the programs we have in place are working," he said.

Still, Governor Dalrymple said he would ask the directors of the state's Department of Health, Department of Transportation, Highway Patrol and Workforce Safety and Insurance (the state's workers' compensation board) to study the worker fatality problem in North Dakota's oil and gas industry.

"It's certainly appropriate for a governor to bring focus to something like that," Dalrymple said. "And the way we would do that is through my regular contact with my cabinet members. I would just turn to them and say, 'I want a report about what we're doing about fatalities in the workforce and I want to know if there's any way we can do it better.' And I think because of this interview, I will probably be doing that at our next meeting."

Inside Energy is a public media collaboration, based in Colorado, Wyoming and North Dakota, focusing on the energy industry and its impacts.

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