Oil and Gas Industry Fatal and Nonfatal Occupational Injuries
"Oil and gas industries are frequently in the news. Much of the time this news is related to changes in prices of oil and gas, which affect most consumers in one way or another. Another less frequent subject of media attention is when disasters strike, as in the offshore oil drilling platform explosion and fire on April 20, 2010, and previous incidents such as the Clearbrook, Minnesota pipeline fire in 2007 and the Texas City, Texas refinery explosion in 2005.

According to the North American Industry Classification System, the oil and gas extraction industry is classified in mining, as all mining industries are focused on extracting natural resources from the earth. Drilling oil and gas wells and support activities for oil and gas operations are classified under support activities for mining. Fatal injury data include oil and gas extraction, drilling oil and gas wells, and support activities for oil and gas extraction. Nonfatal injury and illness data only include drilling oil and gas wells.

Occupational injuries and fatalities associated with fires and explosions are rare events. The overall rate of injuries and illnesses with days away from work due to fires and explosions in all industries was 0.2 per 10,000 full-time workers in 2008, composed of 2,320 cases with days away from work. There were 174 fatal injuries due to fires and explosions in 2008, 18 of which were in the oil and gas industry..."