Workers

More workers are back at Royal Dutch Shell plc’s ethane cracker site in Western Pennsylvania this week after the state said they were exempt from an order last month shutting down nonessential businesses to curb the spread of Covid-19.

The coal mining workforce has declined since 2009, but employment in the nation’s oil and natural gas extraction industry — including support services — grew by 6%, from 369,691 workers to 392,869 total jobs, according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is preparing to send questionnaires to hundreds of onshore oil and gas (O&G) extraction workers in three states next year, part of a three-year study designed to make the industry safer.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) released the results of what it believes to be “the most comprehensive radiological study of the oil and gas industry ever conducted,” finding in most cases that the radioactivity of shale rock is of little danger to the public and workers.

The North American oil and natural gas industry has no shortage of projects in the queue, but it is beginning to suffer from a shortage of skilled and professional employees, leading the American Petroleum Institute (API) to launch an initiative to help inform — and possibly employ — interested job seekers.

Williams Partners has begun taking stock of the damage at its Geismar, LA, olefins plant caused by an explosion and fire on June 13 that killed two workers and injured more than 70 others.

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) has issued a final rule that is aimed at enhancing the safety of oil and gas rig workers on the federal Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) has issued a final rule that is aimed at enhancing the safety of oil and gas rig workers in the federal Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).

Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said Tuesday that his office has opened an investigation of a crude oil spill near Mayflower, AR, which ExxonMobil was working to clean up. The cause of the spill is still under investigation, but Exxon said the spill did not involve tar sands oil.