A 25-year-old oil and gas worker on the Eagle Ford Shale was fatally injured this week when he was struck by a falling pipe. James Dean “Jimmy” Burnett was employed by Victoria Maintenance Inc. and was working on a BHP Billiton Petroleum construction site in Karnes County when the Eagle Ford Shale fatal workplace accident occurred.
Burnett was hit in the head and neck by the falling pipe at a pad construction site; emergency responders were unable to save him.
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Burnett’s death was the twelfth such fatal incident on an oil and gas field in the Eagle Ford Shale since 2009. BHP says that construction activity ceased immediately following Burnett’s death so that the company could investigate; production and drilling activities continued unchanged.
Jet Maintenance claims on its website that it has “an excellent safety record and maintains the highest safety standards for our employees.” There are no OSHA records of accidents or enforcement actions at or against the oilfield construction company.
BHP Billiton Petroleum is a Houston-area oil company and controls more than 330,000 acres in the Eagle Ford Shale play. It is part of the Australian mining company that bought out PetroHawk Energy Corporation a couple of years ago.
BHP Billiton was fined earlier this year by Australian regulators for failing to take appropriate safety precautions, contributing the crush death of a mine worker.
Source: FuelFix, “Contractor is killed at Eagle Ford construction site,” May 7, 2013