Sept 24 (Reuters) – One of four workers hurt in a storage tank fire on Tuesday at an EOG Resources Inc natural gas production facility in Wyoming has died, the company said on Wednesday.
The man who died was one of two contract workers who, with two EOG employees, were cleaning the tank when the fire ignited on Tuesday afternoon, said Houston-based EOG Resources spokeswoman K Leonard.
“The tank stores natural gas, and was undergoing cleaning when the explosion occurred,” the Lincoln County Homeland Security & Emergency Management said in a statement.
Leonard said the site south of La Barge, Wyoming, contains one well and two small liquids storage tanks. She said the fire was extinguished and the well was shut in.
It was a “flash fire,” Leonard said. “We would not describe it as an explosion.”
The deceased man’s identity was not released, and two other men hurt in the fire remained hospitalized, she said. The fourth man injured was treated and released from an outpatient facility.
An explosion in April shut down a Williams Companies Inc natural gas-processing plant about 40 miles (65-km) south of La Barge, in Opal, that churned out about 2 percent of the daily U.S. gas supply. A nearby town was evacuated.
EOG Resources is among the top independent crude oil and natural gas producers in the United States.