MEC&F Expert Engineers : HIGH PRESSURE INSIDE A HEATER-TREATER CAUSED THE DEATH OF AN OIL & GAS MAINTENANCE WORKER IN THE GULF OF MEXICO ON NOVEMBER 21, 2014

Friday, November 21, 2014

HIGH PRESSURE INSIDE A HEATER-TREATER CAUSED THE DEATH OF AN OIL & GAS MAINTENANCE WORKER IN THE GULF OF MEXICO ON NOVEMBER 21, 2014

HIGH PRESSURE INSIDE A HEATER-TREATER CAUSED THE DEATH OF AN OIL & GAS MAINTENANCE WORKER IN THE GULF OF MEXICO ON NOVEMBER 21, 2014

Fieldwood Energy LLC Press Release re West Delta 105 "E" Deadly Incident that Killed a Worker and Injured 3--November 21, 2014; 10:00 a.m. central

At Fieldwood Energy, our top priority is the safety of our employees and contractors. We regret that yesterday afternoon there was an incident at our West Delta 105 "E" platform that occurred when employees of Turnkey Cleaning Services were cleaning a heater treater, which is a piece of equipment that separates oil from water and other liquids. Turnkey Cleaning Services is a Louisiana based industrial cleaning service company that specializes in the cleaning of offshore facilities, including the cleaning of heater treaters.

During the cleaning process, one Turnkey employee was fatally injured and a second suffered visible injuries. The Turnkey employee who suffered visible injuries was immediately flown to West Jefferson Hospital for evaluation and treatment. Two other individuals who were on the platform complained of ringing in their ears, so they also were flown to the same hospital to be evaluated. All three of these individuals have been evaluated and released from the hospital. All other personnel on the platform have been accounted for and are safe.

The West Delta 105 "E" platform has not been producing oil or gas for over a week, as the facility was undergoing routine maintenance operations when the incident occurred. There were no wells that were producing at the time of the incident. The explosion that was mentioned in the initial reports was not a well explosion or well blowout. Instead, it was an isolated pressure event that occurred inside the heater treater and did not result in a fire on the platform. This incident was not related to a drilling operation but, instead, occurred during maintenance operations at the platform. There was no oil spill or pollution that resulted from this incident and it was contained immediately after it occurred with no damage to the environment, the platform, or the platform�s wells.

We do not have additional details at this point. We are working hand in hand with BSEE, the Coast Guard, and Turnkey Cleaning Services to investigate this incident fully. We will post additional information on our company website as we learn more details. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the family of the deceased Turnkey Cleaning Services employee.

What is a Heater Treater?

A heater-treater is a device used to remove contaminants from the natural gas at or near the well head before the gas is sent down the production line to the gas plant. Generally, the contaminants include liquid hydrocarbons and water. The composition of the liquid hydrocarbons (oil and condensate) can vary by gas field but the majority of gas wells in Colorado are located in the Denver-Julesburg (DJ) Basin which produces a condensate liquid.

The heater-treater is a combination of a heater, free-water knockout, and oil/condensate and gas separator. It prevents the formation of ice and natural gas hydrates that may form under the high pressures associated with the gas well production process. These solids can plug the wellhead. Since chokes in the wellhead restrict the flow of the oil and gas from the well, temperatures may drop due to the pressure changes of the choke. This may cause the water or hydrates to freeze and plug the well, thereby slowing or stopping the condensate and gas production. Two diagrams at the end of this document show examples of heater-treaters.

Information regarding heater-treater emissions and control strategies is scarce.

Heated Separation Process

The operating conditions in the heater treater must be adequately monitored to ensure operational productivity and safety. If increases or decreases in temperature or pressure are reported, operators must take the appropriate steps to return the vessel to an optimal operating range. At this time, we do not know iof the correct procedures were followed, but since one person was killed by a high pressure event and 3 were injured, most likely the proper procedures were not followed or the employees were not properly trained.

Without jumping the gun, we often see migrant workers getting killed in these maintenance operations. These are very dirty jobs under very tough conditions, dealing with rusty and corroded and clogged equipment. Only some poor migrant worker would do this type of work. A trained engineer would know that the first thing you do with heaters-treaters is to check the temperature and pressure. The pressure relief valves on these equipment fail quite often and do not show the correct pressure inside the vessel.