Five missing after Oklahoma oil and gas drilling site explosion

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Five workers were missing on Monday after a gas explosion at an oil and gas drilling site in eastern Oklahoma, authorities said.

The blast occurred at around 9 a.m. local time (1500 GMT) near Quinton, Oklahoma, about 146 miles (235 km) from Oklahoma City.

Five of 22 workers at the site were still listed as missing, said Kevin Enloe, director of the Pittsburg County Emergency Management Department. No one was transported to local hospitals, he added.

The search for the missing workers was ongoing, said a spokeswoman at the Pittsburg Sheriff’s Department. The names of the missing were not disclosed.

The explosion occurred during oil and gas drilling using a rig provided by Patterson-UTI Energy Inc (O:), Enloe said.

Patterson-UTI, a contract driller, confirmed in a statement that some of its employees were missing after the fire. The company said it was cooperating with first responders and authorities on the scene. This is the second fire at an Oklahoma oil and gas well site in less than a year. A gas explosion occurred at a Trinity Resources well in the same area in February 2017, injuring a worker.

The explosion is the latest in a series of accidents at oilfields in the state. A 40-year-old Oklahoma man was killed in a backhoe accident earlier this month at an oilfield near Ninnekah, a worker was killed last month when equipment collapsed at a site near Preston. In November, a 36-year-old man was killed when a fitting failed during fracking at a well near Watonga, Oklahoma, according to media reports.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration was closed on Monday due to the government shutdown.

Boots & Coots, Halliburton’s well control and prevention service, had been called in to control the fire and well, and two people from the state’s energy regulator, Oklahoma Corporation Commission, were also on the scene.

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