Americans are Questioning the Safety of Oil Rigs

Following the tragic Transocean rig accident this week, Americans are questioning the safety of oil rigs.  While catastrophic explosions, such as the recent oil rig explosion, are rare, smaller incidents occur regularly.  According to the Minerals Management Service, which supervises offshore drilling, within the first five months of 2009, there were 39 reported fires or explosions. 

In 2008, 120 people lost their lives in the oil and gas industry, based on information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Among those, 21 were on rigs.  The industry is dangerous and companies have to be able to manage these immense risks that workers face.

A Time magazine article, “Just How Dangerous Are Oil Rigs, Anyway,” gave a good description of the current situation – “incidents aboard oil rigs are kind of like plane crashes: they occur rarely but when they do happen they have the potential to kill quickly, cost companies millions of dollars and raise calls for increased safety and preparation measures.”

For Transocean, the company that owned the rig, and BP, the company that was leasing the rig, this explosion isn’t the first incident they have experienced.  Transocean has been involved in several reported fires over the last couple of years and so has BP.  In 2005, BP had an explosion at a Texas City refinery, which killed 15 workers and injured numerous others.