The CSB Investigates Petroleum Site Explosions
Adolescents and young adults often find deserted, ruinous places to hang out with friends, smoke their first ciggy, sip their first beer, or make out with their significant others. Such places could be caves, mines, abandoned houses, or deserted industrial sites. Parents have always warned of the dangers inherent in such clandestine adventures, but now the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has come out with its own concerns.
The CSB released a study of explosions at oil and gas production sites in the US, identifying 26 incidents since 1983 that killed 44 and injured 25 people under the age of 25. The investigative study was aimed at issuing recommendations to address the precautionary gaps at the state and federal level.
Young people frequently gather at oil sites in rural areas, unaware of the hazards that storage tanks pose. The tanks, which may contain flammable crude oil or natural gas condensate, may explode when triggered by ignition from a match, cigarette, or even static electricity. The explosions are powerful enough to launch the tank into the air, killing or injuring anyone nearby.
The CSB report detailed three explosions that occurred at petroleum facilities in Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas.
On October 31, 2009, two teenagers were killed when a condensate tank exploded at a rural gas production site in Carnes, Mississippi. Six months later, an individual was killed in an explosion as a group of young people explored a tank site in Weleetka, Oklahoma. Two weeks later, a 25 year-old man and a 24 year-old woman were atop an oil tank outside New London, Texas, when the tank exploded, killing the woman and seriously injuring the man.
These incidents occurred in isolated, wooded areas. The production sites were unfenced, had no clear warning signs, and did not have hatch locks to prevent access to the hydrocarbons inside the tanks.
The CSB found that some states, such as California, require varying levels of security for oil and gas production sites: fencing, locked or sealed tank hatches, and warning signs. Consequently, California had no fatal tank explosions between 1983 and 2011. Other petroleum-producing states have no such requirements. For example, Texas and Oklahoma require fencing and warning signs for certain sites that have toxic gas hazards, but not for all sites with flammable storage tanks.
The Board recommended that the US EPA issue a safety bulletin regarding the explosion hazards of storage tanks, describe the importance of fencing, gates and signs, and recommend the use of inherently safer storage tank design. The CSB’s recommendations also address the current regulatory gaps in Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas.
The Board has also released a safety video called "No Place to Hang Out: The Danger of Oil Well Sites," designed to educate young people about the dangers of oil storage tanks.
