Company: Oil field death near Parshall not job-related

PARSHALL, N.D. – A death reported Thursday morning at an oil field job site near here does not appear to be work-related, a company spokesman said.

Gary Russell, Key Energy Services vice president for investor relations, said a man was found dead before 5 a.m. Thursday in the control cabin of a nitrogen pump unit.

“They are doing an autopsy to try to determine cause of death, but it does not appear to be job-related, Russell said.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration was on site investigating Thursday.

Eric Brooks, assistant director for the Bismarck Area OSHA Office, said he expects to have more information available Friday.

Russell did not release the employee’s name because he wasn’t sure if family had been notified.

“Anytime something like this happens it’s tragic,” Russell said. “Our thoughts and our hearts and our prayers go out to the employee’s family.”

Calls to the Mountrail County sheriff were not immediately returned.

Since Oct. 1, this is the fourth fatality in North Dakota’s oil and gas industry that OSHA has investigated, Brooks said.

During the previous fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, OSHA investigated seven fatalities in North Dakota’s oil and gas industry out of a total of 14 workplace deaths, he said.

Parshall is about 60 miles southwest of Minot.

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