WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Energy production and distribution is a dangerous business, in spite of strict safety regulations in most countries in North and South America for oil and natural gas producers and processors.

Following is a look at significant energy-related accidents in the Americas in the course of 2010, including the deadly and environmentally destructive oil leak at BP's Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico, which began in April and flowed for about three months.

September 8 - A naphtha tank holding 200,000 barrels caught fire, temporarily halting shipping from a 12 million-barrel crude and oil products storage terminal on the Caribbean island of Bonaire. The BOPEC terminal belongs to Venezuela's state-run PDVSA oil company and is an important staging post for exports to China and the United States.

September 8 - Chile's state oil firm Enap controlled a fire and halted activities at an oil and gas platform located in the Strait of Magellan. The company said there was no crude leaking into the Atlantic Ocean and that workers at the platform were not harmed.

September 7 - An explosion at state oil monopoly Pemex's Cadereyta oil refinery, Mexico's third largest, killed one worker and severely injured two others. A compressor leak at the plant's gas oil hydrotreater unit triggered the blast and fire. The fire was quickly extinguished at the 275,000 barrel-per-day plant. Eight other workers suffered minor injuries.

September 2 - An offshore production rig operated by Mariner Energy in the Gulf of Mexico had a fire, forcing the immediate evacuation of 13 personnel and a major rescue response from the U.S. Coast Guard. The company had recently been producing around 1,400 barrels of crude and 9.2 million cubic feet per day of natural gas at the site.

July 26 - The Enbridge 6B crude pipeline, capacity 190,000 barrels per day, ruptured in Michigan and spilled more than 19,000 barrels into local waterways in one of the largest U.S. pipeline disasters ever. The pipeline remains closed and has affected some refinery operations across the U.S. Midwest.

June 7 - A natural gas pipeline explosion on a line owned by Enterprise Product Partners in North Texas killed one person. The 36-inch (91-cm) pipeline exploded 15 miles south of Godley, Texas. An electrical crew was digging a hole when it struck the gas pipeline. Enterprise violated several state regulations including adequately marking the path of the pipeline, according to the Texas Railroad Commission.

June 7 - An explosion and resulting fireball burned seven members of a crew drilling for natural gas at an abandoned coal mine in West Virginia, the second big fire at an energy project in the region in less than a week.

June 4 - Workers capped a natural gas well in central Pennsylvania after it ruptured during drilling, spewing gas and drilling fluid 75 feet in the air. The well, operated by EOG Resources Inc blew out when a drilling team was preparing to extract gas. No one was killed or injured, but officials later ordered the company to halt natural gas drilling in the state.

May 13 - A Venezuelan natural gas exploration rig sank in the Caribbean sea. All 95 workers on the rig were rescued and there was no gas leak.

April 20 - Explosion and fire on Transocean Ltd's drilling rig Deepwater Horizon licensed to BP; 11 workers were killed on the rig stationed in deep waters south of Louisiana. The runaway oil well spilled up to 4.9 million barrels before it could be capped in mid-July, according to government estimates, making it the worst offshore oil spill in history.

April 5 - An explosion at the Upper Big Branch coal mine in Montcoal, West Virginia, killed 29 miners in the deadliest U.S. mining disaster since 1972. The mine owned by Massey Energy has had a worse-than-average injury rate over the last 10 years, with three fatalities since 1998.

April 2 - Four workers died in a blaze at Tesoro Corp's refinery in Anacortes, Washington, in the worst U.S. refining disaster since 2005. The fire resulted from equipment failure in a highly flammable unit producing naphtha at the plant.

March 2 - A fire on an asphalt tank under construction killed two workers at Holly Corp's Navajo refinery in Artesia, New Mexico.

(Compiled by Joshua Schneyer, Alden Bentley, Janet McGurty and Jasmin Melvin; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)