Oil field equipment can be very unforgiving. This fact was borne out recently when yet another life was claimed in an oil field accident. A 22-year-old Kalispell, Montana man died after sustaining injuries to his chest and abdomen on a rig north of Watford City, North Dakota. The accident happened around 1:30 on a weekday afternoon. How it happened is…Read More
The extraction of oil from the Bakken Formation, which runs under Montana and North Dakota, has brought an economic boom to those regions. But the boom has come with a price, as injured workers and the families of workers killed on the job can attest. The recent death of a 49-year-old Minnesota man in an oil field accident in North…Read More
An explosion and fire at an oil processing facility in eastern Montana has injured three workers, at least two of whom were taken to a local hospital. The facility is in Wibaux, near the North Dakota border and at the eastern edge of the Bakken Shale crude oil formation. The facility takes slop oil, a waste material from the oil…Read More
Our nation’s oil fields, in Montana and elsewhere, are responsible for a lot of well-paying jobs. But those jobs come at a price. Oil fields can be dangerous places, and those who work in them face a risk of injury, or even death, not found in many other occupations. Recently a 49-year-old man from Carlsbad, New Mexico became the latest…Read More
When a Montana oil field worker is injured on the job, his or her first avenue of recovery is usually a workers’ compensation claim against his employer. If the negligence of a third party, other than the worker’s employer, contributed to the accident, the worker can also bring a civil lawsuit against that third party for damages. This appears to…Read More
Few would dispute that the Bakken oil boom has brought significant economic benefits to Montana and western North Dakota. But those benefits come with a price. In the Bakken oil region, an increase in highway and oil field accidents is putting a strain on local hospitals. A recent news article discussed the burden now being faced by rural hospitals in…Read More
The North Dakota oil boom has drawn many Montana workers to the state. However, a recent oil field accident reminds us that oil fields can be very dangerous places. A 21-year-old Montana man was found dead by a coworker at one such oil well. The state medical examiner’s report concluded that the young man died from hydrocarbon poisoning caused by…Read More