WILLISTON, N.D. (AP) - Federal safety inspectors say a Houston-based oil company could have prevented a 28-year-old Alabama man's death by properly maintaining the water hauling tank that exploded while he was working in it in North Dakota.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued one willful and four serious safety citations against Nabors Completion and Production Services Co. The company faces $97,200 in proposed penalties for allegedly failing to clean the water tank in which Dustin Payne was welding.
Payne of Hazel Green, Alabama was welding inside the tank when vapors ignited. He was injured in the October 3rd explosion and flown to a Minot hospital, where he died five days later.
A call to Nabors was not immediately returned Wednesday afternoon.