OSHA Fine West Virginia Oil Gas Company $61K for Repeat Violations

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Cairo-based Jay-Bee Oil & Gas, Inc., for 10 repeat, three serious and four other-than-serious workplace safety violations, following a Feb. 4 inspection at a gas well drilling site in Salem, W.V. Proposed penalties total $73,150.

According to OSHA, a congressional referral initiated the gas and oil well drilling company inspection. Jay-Bee Oil & Gas corporate offices are located in Union, N.J.

“This company’s failure to correct previously cited violations means that it continues to place workers in harm’s way,” said Prentice Cline, director of OSHA’s Charleston Area Office. “It is vital that the company address these hazards to protect its employees.”

The repeat violations, which carry penalties of $61,600, involve tripping hazards; lack of guardrails or barricades around pits; lack of guarding on open-sided floors and platforms; lack of stair railings on open sides of stairways; failing to provide first-aid training to employees; failing to provide eye wash stations for employees handling corrosive materials; not properly mounted portable fire extinguishers; failing to provide portable fire extinguisher training to employees; not properly training powered industrial truck operators; and not properly training employees handling and exposed to hazardous materials.

The company was cited for the same violations in 2010 at the Salem site. A repeat violation exists when an employer previously has been cited for the same or a similar violation of a standard, regulation, rule or order at any other facility in federal enforcement states within the last five years.

The serious violations, with penalties of $10,780, include fall hazards, not properly labeling containers of hazardous materials, material safety data sheets not readily accessible, and the employer’s failure to provide and ensure the use of flame-retardant clothing. A serious violation occurs when there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known.

The other-than-serious violations, with penalties of $770, were cited for improper certification of OSHA’s form 300 for workplace injuries and illnesses. An other-than-serious violation is one that has a direct relationship to job safety and health, but probably would not cause death or serious physical harm.