Tracking Worker Deaths in Oil and Gas Extraction: The FOG Database, 2014–2019

This page summarizes a CDC MMWR Surveillance Summary by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) on its Fatalities in Oil and Gas Extraction (FOG) database, 2014–2019.

A dangerous, little-studied industry

Oil and gas extraction (OGE) workers have historically died on the job at seven times the rate of U.S. workers overall. They do physically demanding work, are exposed to hazardous chemicals and flammable, toxic gases, commute long distances, work shifts and work outdoors in all weather. In 2019 OGE made up about 70% of the mining sector's workforce but about 82% of its deaths, and transportation incidents cause the largest share. The industry has no OGE-specific federal safety standard and is not unionized.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics' Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) is the leading source on work deaths, but it misses much of what matters in oil and gas:

• It does not capture industry details such as the phase of well development or the task being done.
• It generally excludes deaths during commutes, a big concern where work sites are remote.
• It treats heart attacks as illness and leaves them out, though toxic gas exposure can mimic or trigger cardiac events.
• It misses contractors who work in oil fields during booms but are classed in other industries; offshore, about a third of deaths were among such workers.

At the urging of the National Occupational Research Agenda's OGE Sector Council, which includes industry, trade groups, universities and government, NIOSH created the FOG database in 2013.

How FOG works

NIOSH researchers and council members designed the inclusion criteria and industry-specific variables, such as phase of operation, worker activity, working alone and working unobserved. Cases came from OSHA reports, media reports and Google Alerts, and professional contacts; researchers collected source documents, and several of them coded each case to ensure accuracy. A pilot also searched Texas Department of Transportation crash records (CRIS).

Findings, 2014–2019

470 deaths were recorded: 401 from injuries and 69 cardiac deaths. OSHA reports (44.7%) and Google Alerts (24.7%) found most of them. Industry-specific variables were identified for about 85% of cases, but demographics less often (sex 79.6%, age 75.7%, race 39.1%).

• Per year: from 30 in 2016 to 114 in 2019; per 100 active rotary rigs, from 5.8 in 2017 to 12.1 in 2019. The same number of deaths in 2014 and 2019 meant a rate about twice as high in 2019, because fewer rigs were active; that may reflect more efficient drilling rather than less safe work.
• Where: about a third (31.5%) in the Permian Basin, which produces about 40% of U.S. oil, then the Western Gulf (15.7%), Appalachian (9.1%) and Williston (8.5%) basins. Most occurred in rural counties, which can delay emergency help.
• Who: mean age 41.2; 98.7% of those with known sex were men. Well servicing company workers accounted for 60.4%, drilling contractors 17.9% and operators 5.1%; about three-fourths were contractors, and 30 worked in industries outside the standard OGE codes.
• Phase: production (17.7%), roadway (16.2%), well servicing or workover (14.3%) and drilling (14.0%).
• Activity: repair or maintenance (13.4%), travel in a light-duty vehicle (13.0%) and handling drilling fluids or tubulars (11.3%). About a fifth were working alone.
• Offshore: 20 deaths (4.3%).

Multifatality incidents: 80 deaths (17.0%) came from 32 incidents. Vehicle incidents were half of them, killing 41 workers; explosions caused 11 incidents and 29 deaths.

Texas crash records added 56 crash deaths in 2017–2019 not otherwise found. About half involved a pickup truck, in 51.8% a seat belt was not worn, 21.4% involved ejection, and half happened between midnight and 9 a.m.

What FOG has changed

• Tank hatch hazards. FOG revealed previously unreported deaths from hydrocarbon gas and vapor exposure among workers opening tank hatches. The American Petroleum Institute issued a new standard in 2016 for measuring crude oil without opening hatches, and the Bureau of Land Management adopted it for federal and Indian leases, making safer methods easier to use.
• Alerts and research. NIOSH, OSHA and the National STEPS Network published hazard alerts and fact sheets reaching thousands of workers; guidance helped medical examiners recognize hydrocarbon exposure; and studies highlighted cardiac deaths, heat-related illness and substance use.
• Seat belts. Low seat belt use, seen before in OGE, points to a need for employer action.

The cost of keeping it going

An industry-specific system can spot emerging hazards and build partnerships, but it is labor-intensive. It needs researchers who know the industry, long waits for OSHA files that often run past 100 pages and still lack prevention details such as work hours, and hunts for crash reports and autopsies when OSHA does not investigate. With those challenges and the end of grant funding, data collection stopped after 2019.

Limitations

• Deaths of self-employed workers, which OSHA does not investigate, are likely undercounted.
• Deaths from work-related chronic illness cannot be identified.
• Roadway crashes are underreported, since most fall outside OSHA's jurisdiction; the CRIS pilot was too labor-intensive to continue and covered only company vehicles.

NIOSH recommends continued surveillance of oil and gas worker deaths, and suggests other high-risk industries, such as mining and construction, could build similar systems.

Sources

• Wingate KC, Ramirez-Cardenas A, Hill R, Ridl S, Hagan-Haynes K. "Fatalities in Oil and Gas Extraction Database, an Industry-Specific Worker Fatality Surveillance System — United States, 2014–2019." MMWR Surveillance Summaries 72(8). https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/ss/ss7208a1.htm
• Supplementary appendix and tables: https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/131261