Company in gas well fatal blast fined before

JOE MANDAK Associated Press Writer

PITTSBURGH — The employer of two workers killed in an oil and gas well explosion last week had paid nearly $10,000 in federal workplace safety fines for two other well fires, including a 2007 explosion that burned an employee, records show.

Officials at Northeast Energy Management Inc. of Indiana, Pa., did not return a call for comment Tuesday about the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration records.

The explosion and fire Friday was the third since September 2007 involving Northeast Energy Management workers at a western Pennsylvania well, OSHA spokeswoman Lenore Uddyback-Fortson confirmed.

Huntley & Huntley Inc. of Monroeville, the drilling company that owned the well, has a clean OSHA record, Uddyback-Fortson said.

Northeast Management was cited for 10 serious violations, and one other violation after the September 2007 explosion and fire at a well near Sligo in Clarion County, OSHA records show.

Workers at a natural gas well “were exposed to an unsafe air mixture environment resulting in an explosion and fire causing injuries,” OSHA said. A piece of equipment called the blowout preventer had been removed, causing the well to spew natural gas for two hours before an attempt was made to cap the well, the records show.

OSHA proposed $12,442 in fines, and Northeast Energy eventually paid $5,965 to settle seven of the 10 serious violations, records show.

In November 2008, the company was fined $4,000 for a drilling rig fire in Charleroi in Washington County.

“No employees were injured, and we cited them for electrical wiring and equipment that was not approved for hazardous locations,” Uddyback-Fortson said.

Investigators have yet to determine the cause of Friday’s explosion.