Thursday, January 8, 2015

SMALL EXPLOSION CONTAINED ON GAS WELL PAD NEAR PROCTER & GAMBLE IN WYOMING COUNTY



SMALL EXPLOSION CONTAINED ON GAS WELL PAD NEAR PROCTER & GAMBLE IN WYOMING COUNTY

Published: January 7, 2015

MEHOOPANY TWP. — A small explosion Wednesday morning at a natural gas well pad supplying Procter & Gamble’s plant in Wyoming County was quickly contained with no injuries or significant damage, according to state, gas company and P&G officials.
Around 9:40 a.m., contractors were finishing completion operations on Warren Resources Inc.’s P&G 4 well pad on Route 87 across from the company’s paper products plant, Warren’s vice president of corporate development Jeff Keeler said. They accidentally vented a small amount of natural gas from a workover drilling rig.

A heating unit about 25 feet away sparked the gas and caused a flare that was loud but “self-contained,” he said. The contractors quickly extinguished a resulting fire.
Procter & Gamble employees heard an explosion, spokesman Alex Fried said.
“Within minutes, Warren called us and assured us there was no gas leak, injury or environmental incident,” Mr. Fried said.

A few extra pickup trucks stood near the pad’s entrance within 12 minutes of dispatches by the Wyoming County Emergency Management Agency. Nothing else looked out of the ordinary.

Warren immediately reported the incident to local fire and emergency management officials, who left soon after arriving, Mr. Keeler said.

The state Department of Environmental Protection’s emergency response team did not visit the site, spokeswoman Colleen Connolly said, but she confirmed they were monitoring the situation. The incident was considered closed by around noon, she said.
Warren is stopping operations on its P&G 4 pad for a more thorough investigation on the root cause “to prevent future incidents from occurring,” Mr. Keeler said.

Citrus Energy Corp. formerly operated the wells that supplied the Procter & Gamble’s relatively new on-site electricity generators until Citrus sold its Marcellus Shale wells and lease holdings to New York-based Warren Resources in a $352.5 million deal announced in July.