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.