Accidents Bring Calls to Suspend Shale Drilling
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
8 June 2010
By Don Hopey
Serious accidents at Marcellus shale natural gas drilling operations in
Pennsylvania and West Virginia over the past five days have prompted
sanctions against one Texas-based drilling company, support for tighter
federal regulations and even calls for a moratorium on drilling.
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Secretary John
Hanger on Monday ordered EOG Resources Inc., formerly Enron Oil &
Gas Co., to suspend all new drilling operations in the state until an
independent investigation of a massive well "blowout" Thursday night
near Penfield, Clearfield County, is completed.
"The Clearfield County incident presented a serious threat to life and
property," Mr. Hanger said. "We are working with the company to review
its Pennsylvania drilling operations fully from beginning to end to
ensure an incident of this nature does not happen again."
Mr. Hanger said it was fortunate that the well did not ignite or
explode. A preliminary DEP investigation has determined that the well's
blowout preventer failed, even though EOG records show the company
inspected the device early Thursday morning.
The accident occurred when EOG's operators lost control of the well
after fracturing, or cracking, the Marcellus formation more than a mile
underground to release the natural gas locked in the shale. High
pressure pushed the gas and "frack fluid" laced with toxic chemicals
out of the well for 16 hours, spraying more than 35,000 gallons and
maybe as many as 1 million gallons 75 feet into the air.
The DEP order prohibits EOG from drilling new wells for seven days,
starting fracking activities for 14 days and initiating post-fracking
operations for 30 days throughout the state. The investigation could
extend those operational suspensions and result in additional fines or
enforcement actions against the company. The order, which EOG agreed
to, affects 50 drilled but incomplete wells in the state but not its
265 active wells.
EOG issued a press release in which Gary Smith, EOG vice president and
general manager in Pittsburgh, said he "regrets the incident" and the
company is cooperating with state investigators and conducting its own
investigation.
Monday afternoon, EOG officials conducted a full briefing on the
incident for members of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, a drilling
industry advocacy group.
"It's important that the whole industry understands and can learn from
those kinds of experiences and share what worked in emergency
responses," said Kathryn Klaber, president of the Marcellus Shale
Coalition, who noted that the "blowout" in Clearfield County was the
first in the Marcellus shale formation and such accidents are extremely
rare.
But Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Rep. Joe Sestak on Monday called on
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to increase its monitoring and
oversight of Marcellus shale development, saying in a letter to EPA
Administrator Lisa Jackson that adequate regulations are not in place
to protect the public and water resources.
Until such regulations are in place, all Marcellus shale drilling
operations should be halted because they pose an "immanent public
health hazard," said Conrad Dan Volz, assistant professor for
Environmental & Occupational Health at the University of
Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public Health and director of the
school's Center for Healthy Environments and Communities.
Dr. Volz said the Clearfield "blowout" and a drilling rig explosion
near Moundsville, W.Va., Monday that burned and injured seven drilling
workers in a suspected methane gas explosion on a Chief Oil & Gas
well is evidence that a moratorium is necessary to allow a thorough
assessment of drilling operations and the risks they pose.
"This is a public health issue, especially for planned drilling in
populated areas and around schools," he said. "It's an occupational
health problem, an environmental health problem and an emergency
preparedness problem that no one has foreseen."
But Ms. Klaber said that new federal regulation would be redundant to
state laws, and a moratorium on drilling would drive up retail gas
prices and deprive property owners of financial benefits from leasing
gas drilling rights.
"These incidents occurred from two very different sets of
circumstances," she said. "Having them happen so close together makes
us look harder at the broader lessons learned and we are doing that
right now."
The Marcellus shale formation underlies three-quarters of Pennsylvania
and parts of New York, Maryland, Ohio and West Virginia, a total of
95,000 square miles, and contains as much as 363 trillion cubic feet of
natural gas -- enough to supply the nation's gas demands for 10 to 15
years.
In Pennsylvania alone, approximately 2,500 Marcellus shale gas well
drilling permits were issued from 2007 through 2009 by the state
Department of Environmental Protection, which projects another 5,000
permits will be issued this year.
Don Hopey: dhopey@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1983.