Oil workers strike after death after Vaca Muerta drilling field

Unionised oil workers in the south of Argentina have announced a “total stoppage of activities” for 24 hours following the death of an employee.

The strike will affect drilling rigs across Vaca Muerta site, the massive oil and gas field in northern Patagonia.

Driller Vista Energy said in a statement on Tuesday night that Miguel Fernández, 40, had died after an accident that took place while he was carrying out routine tasks at the F19 drilling rig in Bajada del Palo Oeste field in Neuquén. 

The company explained that emergency protocols were immediately activated and the Fernández, an employee with oil and gas driller Nabors, was taken to a health centre 80 kilometres away in the town of Catriel, Río Negro, where he later died. 

An autopsy is expected to be carried out in the next few hours to determine the cause of death. 

"According to provisional information, the Vista company informed the 13th police station in El Chañar yesterday that at 7.30pm, a worker on duty had an accident: a large pipe fell on him, causing fractures in his legs,” said a statement issued by the Public Prosecutor's Office in Neuquén on Wednesday morning.

“At that moment it was indicated that the injured was conscious, onboard an ambulance to Catriel,” the nearest available site for medical care,” it concluded.

Vista said it had initiated an internal investigation into the accident involving Fernández, who lived in Rincón de los Sauces.

"The company expresses its condolences to his co-workers and, especially, to his family," the firm said in a statement.

Minutes after the news broke, workers grouped under the Sindicato de Petróleo y Gas Privado de Río Negro, Neuquén y La Pampa (“Private Oil and Gas Union of Río Negro, Neuquén and La Pampa”) banner announced a “total stoppage of activities” from 8am Wednesday morning.

Noting that this was the fourth death so far this year, the union called for “no more deaths in the oil industry.

The group criticised the “lack of investment in safety” at rigs.

“There are a lot of injured and mutilated comrades,” said Marcelo Rucci, the union’s secretary general.

“We are not prepared to give up our lives for production. We know how these investigations always end. The workers are always blamed when we have evidence that there is a lack of safety,” he told local media.

There will be no activity at the site until at least Thursday, though the union may seek to extend the strike.

The Vaca Muerta formation, a huge sweep of Patagonian wilderness that traverses two provinces, sits on the world's second-largest reserve of shale gas and its fourth-largest oil reserves. 

– TIMES/NA