FAILURE TO FOLLOW FREEZING WEATHER PROCEDURES, CAUSED A BIG
LOSS OF NATURAL GAS AND A HUGE FINE FOR CABOT OIL & GAS CORPORATION
The
Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) today announced it has fined Cabot
Oil & Gas Corp. of Pittsburgh $76,546 for a January well control incident
at the company’s Huston well pad in Brooklyn Township, Susquehanna County.
“Cabot
lost control of the Huston J1 gas well for 27 hours, to which the department
responded to promptly to ensure there were no significant environmental
impacts,” DEP Director of District Oil and Gas Operations John Ryder said. “In
this incident, mostly gas was released, which dissipated quickly to background
levels within 100 feet from the well.”
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The
incident began the morning of Jan. 5 when a Cabot subcontractor was replacing
equipment on the wellhead. The
subcontractor did not follow standard operating procedures for the process by
failing to first warm the wellhead prior to conducting any work in the freezing
temperature. This resulted in damage to a wing valve.
A
subsequent analysis of the damaged wing valve indicated that it was in the open
position, allowing gas to escape. The analysis also indicated that frozen sand
in the valve bore may have obstructed movement of the gate, causing a function
test to indicate the valve was closed when it was open.
Cabot
contacted Wild Well Control of Houston, Texas, for assistance, which installed
two hydraulic valves to diminish the gas flow in the damaged valve to allow
full replacement. The well was brought under control shortly before 1 p.m. on
Jan. 6.
During
the incident, Cabot contacted five property owners within a quarter mile of the
well pad to notify them of the situation. However, it was determined that no
evacuation was needed based on the results of DEP air monitoring. DEP staff
used meters to detect combustible gas on and in the vicinity of the well pad,
and to determine if there was an explosive atmosphere.
DEP Oil
and Gas and Emergency Response program staff were on scene providing oversight
throughout the incident.
The
department issued a notice of violation (NOV) to Cabot on Jan. 16 for
violations of the Solid Waste Management Act, Clean Streams Law and the Chapter
78 oil and gas regulations. The NOV requested a written response within 10
days, which Cabot provided.
In its
response, the company said it could not determine the exact amount of natural
gas or fluid released because it was not possible to safely measure the flows,
but said the majority of the release consisted of natural gas.
Pennsylvania
hits another production record
Gas
production in Pennsylvania continued to hit records, with 1.9 trillion cubic
feet of gas coming out of the ground during the first half of the year,
according to new data released from the Pennsylvania Department of
Environmental Protection on Monday. That's a 14 percent increase over the
previous six-month period when operators pulled 1.7 trillion cubic feet of
gas out of the ground. A year ago it was closer to 1.4 trillion.
About
510 new wells came online during the reporting period.
Infrastructure
constraints in Appalachia have made it difficult for producers to get their gas
out of this underpriced market to hungry demand centers outside of
Pennsylvania, but some of that may be easing.
“There's
a lot of new capacity over the first half of the year," said Sam Gorgen, a
U.S. crude oil production analyst at the Energy Information Administration, who
monitors Pennsylvania oil and gas production.
"Certainly,
there is the possibility of companies wanting to bring on more wells, and there
could be some restrictions on [how much] they could flow from those
wells," he said.
Susquehanna
County had the most gas production during the past six months, with 455 billion
cubic feet, or 23 percent of the state sum. Bradford and Lycoming counties
followed.
In
southwestern Pennsylvania, Washington County continued to lead the area in gas
production with 198 billion cubic feet, followed closely by Greene County with
172 billion cubic feet. Production from the Greater Pittsburgh region accounted
for about a quarter of all statewide gas reported during the first six months
of 2014.
Washington
County was once again the leader in liquids production in the state by a large
margin, with 1.8 million barrels of condensate, most of that coming from Range
Resources, and 204,316 barrels of oil, all from Chesapeake Energy.
While a
distant second, Mercer County is starting to emerge as another liquids-rich
destination, with Shell and Halcon having some successes there with condensate
and oil. Last week, Shell sold off its acreage in Mercer and neighboring
Western Pennsylvania counties to Rex Energy Corp.
Five
Cabot Oil & Gas wells in Susquehanna County were the most productive during
the past six months, pumping out the most gas per day even though some had
already been producing for more than six months. Typically, a shale gas well
starts slowing production after only a few months.
The top
five producers in the state — Chesapeake Energy, Cabot Oil & Gas,
Range Resources, Southwestern Energy, and EQT Corp, in that order
— accounted for nearly half of the state's gas supply for the first
half of the year.
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