Gas, Fluids Spew From Blown-Out Pa. Well
Washington, PA Observer-Reporter
5 June 2010
Associated Press
PENFIELD - A blowout at a natural-gas well in a remote area shot
explosive gas and polluted water as high as 75 feet into the air before
crews were able to tame it more than half a day later, officials said
Friday.
The gas never caught fire, and no injuries were reported, but state
officials worried about an explosion before the well could be
controlled. The well was brought under control just after noon Friday,
about 16 hours after it started spewing gas and brine, said Elizabeth
Ivers, a spokeswoman for driller EOG Resources Inc.
Pennsylvania, historically an insignificant source of natural gas, is
trying to adapt its laws to respond to a furious rush to tap a gas-rich
shale formation under its land. The blowout could test the ability of
state regulators, who promised an aggressive investigation into the
accident.
"The event at the well site could have been a catastrophic incident
that endangered life and property," Department of Environmental
Protection Secretary John Hanger said in a statement. "This was not a
minor accident but a serious incident that will be fully investigated
by this agency with the appropriate and necessary actions taken
quickly."
If the agency finds that mistakes were made, it will take steps to
prevent similar errors, he said. It was too early to tell the extent of
any environmental damage, he said.
Details about the accident were still sketchy, but the agency was told
that unexpectedly high gas pressure in the new well prevented the crew
from containing it, said Dan Spadoni, a spokesman for the Department of
Environmental Protection.
EOG declined to explain how the accident happened, citing the ongoing
investigation. Public safety and protection of the environment are of
the utmost importance, the company said in a statement.
President Barack Obama and others have touted exploration of shale as a
major new source of clean, homegrown energy. However, lawmakers who are
battling for more stringent oversight of such drilling to protect clean
drinking water quickly seized on the accident.
"Incidents like this blowout are a reminder that there are dangers and
that precautions must be taken to protect the health and well-being of
Pennsylvanians," U.S. Sen. Bob Casey said in a statement.
Casey has sponsored a bill to require the industry to comply with the
Safe Drinking Water Act and force it to disclose the chemicals it uses
in its hydraulic fracturing processes - in which millions of gallons of
water, sand and chemicals are blasted underground to shatter tightly
compacted shale and release trapped natural gas.
David Rensink, the incoming president of the American Association of
Petroleum Geologists, said gas well blowouts are very rare and can be
very dangerous to control, since a spark can set off an explosion.
Typically, a blowout preventer - a series of valves that sit atop a
well - allows workers to control the pressure inside, he said.
Just such a device figured into the massive oil spill off the coast of
Louisiana. The oil rig's blowout preventer was supposed to shut off the
flow of oil in the event of a catastrophic failure but failed to do so.
The Pennsylvania well is on the grounds of a hunting club in a heavily
forested section of Clearfield County, near Interstate 80 and about 90
miles northeast of Pittsburgh.
Houston-based EOG, formerly part of Enron Corp., was drilling into the
Marcellus Shale reserve, a hotly pursued gas formation primarily under
Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York and Ohio that some geologists
believe could become the nation's most productive natural gas field.
There are more than 1,000 Marcellus Shale wells in Pennsylvania alone,
some of them within view of homes, farmhouses and public roads.
There were no homes within a mile of the well, and polluted drilling
water was prevented from reaching a waterway, said Spadoni, the
department spokesman.
On Friday afternoon, a worker blocked a dirt road to the site, while
trucks hauling tanks to remove the polluted water streamed past him. He
said he was not allowed to talk about what had happened.
The accident happened just after the crew finished hydraulic
fracturing. The crew was clearing out debris from the well when gas
shot out of it, Spadoni said.
Workers evacuated the site and contacted county authorities before 10
p.m., said John Sobel, a Clearfield County commissioner. A Pennsylvania
Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman said the agency got word after
midnight and within the hour notified the DEP. The DEP said it wasn't
notified until 1:30 a.m., more than five hours after the blowout.
The polluted water flowing out of the well and into the woods was
stopped by a trench and a pump installed by a contractor, Spadoni said.
Companies that specialize in securing blown-out wells were called in,
he said.
As a precaution, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a flight
restriction Friday morning, saying no planes below 1,000 feet should go
within three miles of the site. The restriction was lifted shortly
after the well was capped.