State declares health emergency at Windsor oil drilling site

Coloradoan.com
May 1st, 2012

Colorado oil and gas regulators have declared an emergency at an oil well being drilled atop an old landfill on the Larimer County side of Windsor – a well that generated a groundswell of public concern when it was announced last year.

A drilling rig became unstable last Wednesday as Ranchers Exploration Partners was drilling an oil well atop the long-shuttered Johnston Landfill in Windsor, a site near the River West and Ridge West subdivisions south of Colorado Highway 392.

The well site is on a hill above a gulch that drains into a nearby reservoir along the Poudre River.

After Greeley-based Ranchers Exploration attempted to stabilize the drilling rig with cement, landfill debris and other trash were seen being expelled from the well bore, and the rig lost “circulation of fluids, likely due to the presence of highly permeable unconsolidated landfill materials,” according to a cease-and-desist order the state served Ranchers last week.

In last week’s cease and desist order, Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission Acting Director Thomas Kerr declared an emergency because Ranchers’ operation poses an environment and public health risk.

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Crew Stops Flow of Gas at Well Blowout - Residents Evacuated

Source: WyoFile
April 27,2012

Natural gas is no longer venting from the Combs Ranch Unit 29-33-70 1H well north of Douglas as of 11:05 a.m. today (Friday), according to a state official.

Well control specialists Boots & Coots and oilfield services company Halliburton had initiated well-plugging efforts at 9:25 a.m. today at the Chesapeake Energy (NYSE:CHK) drilling location 10 miles north of Douglas, according to the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (WOGCC). The well had been venting gas since a blowout on Tuesday afternoon.

Chesapeake is one of several operators testing the Niobrara and other deep formations in the southern Powder River Basin for shale oil potential. The rig is owned by Canadian-based Trinidad Drilling (TSX:TDG).

“At 11:05 am April 27 OGCC field inspector reported that pumping of drilling mud continues into the Combs Ranch well and that the natural gas venting to the atmosphere as ceased, approximately 68 hours after the loss of well control and venting of natural gas occurred,” commission supervisor Tom Doll said in a prepared statement this morning. ” I will get another report before 2:00 pm today confirming the time venting ceased and the duration.  It is expected by then that the well capacity should be filled with drilling mud.”

No workers were injured in Tuesday’s blowout, according to company officials. The incident occurred at about 4 p.m. Tuesday as a crew was installing steel casing. Venting occurred at the mouth of the well below the rig. According to Chesapeake, the well also spewed oil-based drilling mud, which is mostly contained on location.

Well control specialists Boots & Coots (a division of Halliburton) was on location and prepared to implement plugging operations on Thursday morning, but had to delay the operation due to variable wind conditions that day, Chesapeake spokeswoman Kelsey Campbell told WyoFile. No local fire crews are on hand, said Converse County Emergency Management coordinator Russ Dalgarn, because Boots & Coots is prepared to fight a fire if there is an ignition.

Approximately 50 of the 70 residents living within a 2.5 mile radius of the Chesapeake well had voluntarily evacuated their homes on Tuesday evening.

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Hydraulic fracturing fingered in oil well blowout

By Dina O'Meara,
Calgary Herald
Edmonton Journal
January 16, 2012 8:06 PM

Oil sprayed on farmer’s land near Innisfail

CALGARY — Hydraulic fracturing of an oil well in southern Alberta could have caused an oil well blowout a kilometre away, according to provincial regulators.

Friday afternoon, a landowner in the Garrington area west of Innisfail spotted a pumpjack spewing what appeared to be oil and chemicals onto his neighbour’s field.

Black fluid from the well sprayed 15 metres in the air until the man was able to alert a hydraulic fracturing crew working on a nearby well for Midway Energy. They halted operations at the site then shut down the Wild Stream Exploration pumpjack.

The Energy Resource Conservation Board was alerted around 5:30 p.m. Friday by the Alberta Surface Rights Group on the behest of the landowner.

“We don’t know the details yet ... but my understanding is that it appears the fracturing process affected the other well,” said board spokeswoman Cara Tobin, Monday.

The incident could have repercussions around North America as the industry grapples with rising public discontent over rapidly increasing use of the technology to unlock shale gas and oil reserves.
Fluids blasted deep into the earth under high pressure appear to have intersected underground with the second well, forcing oil up through the well bore at explosive rates.

“We’re still not quite sure what happened,” said Scott Ratushny, Midway Energy chief executive. “We’re still investigating it, but something allowed the frack to carry into the same zone, 130 to 140 metres away (underground),”
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