W.Va. DEP investigates well site fire, 2 injured (click here)
Posted: Oct 29, 2013 6:36 AM ESTUpdated: Oct 29, 2013 7:44 AM EST
WEST UNION, W.Va. (AP) - State regulators are investigating a flash fire that injured two workers at an Antero Resources gas-drilling site in Doddridge County.
Media outlets report that the fire occurred Sunday morning at a well pad near West Union.
Antero Resources chief administrative officer Alvyn Schopp says there was a condensate leak as the workers were installing a new separator.
Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Tom Aluise says the vapors ignited, causing the flash fire.
Both workers suffered burns. Schopp says one worker remains hospitalized at West Penn Burn Center in Pittsburgh. The other was treated at a Clarksburg hospital and released.
The DEP is investigating the incident.
In July, two workers were killed and three others were injured in a fire at another Antero drilling site near New Milton in Doddridge County.
It appears a tiny hole the size of the point of a pen (click here) in an underground saltwater disposal line caused some 150 barrels of the water to leach into the Blacktail Creek drainage on U.S. Forest Service and private land north of Belfield.
The well company Encore Energy is working round the clock, setting pumps into a deep, nearly inaccessible ravine to pump water from a beaver dam on the creek, said the company’s environmental coordinator, Bart Brinkerhoff.
It appears from early water samples that the salt infusion is relatively low. The state Health Department’s water quality director, Dennis Fewless, said that may be because less water reached the creek than initially thought.
The pipe leak was discovered Oct. 22 at a remote saltwater injection well site on the Little Missouri National Grasslands....
Governor Asks For Pipeline Safety Review (click here)
Posted: Oct 29, 2013 10:47 PM EST
Updated: Oct 29, 2013 10:47 PM EST
Governor Jack Dalrymple has asked the federal government to review its oversight of pipeline safety.
In a phone conference with the administrator of the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, Dalrymple says he's worried that pipeline regulations fall short in protecting rural areas from spills.
He asked the administrator to look over the requirements for rural pipeline safety.
The governor also requested that the agency keep him abreast of the investigation into the Tesoro pipeline spill near Tioga - the largest pipeline spill in the state.
Dalrymple also contacted a vice president at Tesoro for an update on what the company is doing to improve safety along the pipeline that failed.
The Tesoro exec said the company has monitors along the entire pipeline north of Mandan, as well as shut-off valves on both sides of the Missouri River.
Associated Press in Bismarck
theguardian.com,
...Scientists (click here) who helped measure oil spilled from a broken BP well into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 are questioning the methodology used to estimate the amount of crude that recently leaked from a ruptured pipeline into a wheat field in northwestern North Dakota.
Tesoro said it came up with its more than 20,000-barrel spill estimate using ground analysis. But oil spill experts say a more accurate assessment likely would come from calculating how much crude went into the pipeline versus what was supposed to come out at its terminus.
Farmer Steve Jensen discovered the North Dakota oil spill the size of seven football fields while harvesting wheat 29 September. Tesoro first estimated the spill at its underground pipeline near Tioga at 750 barrels. About a week later, the San Antonio, Texas-based company increased the estimate to 20,600 barrels, or some 865,000 gallons, making it one of the largest spills in North Dakota history.
Tesoro said in a statement to the Associated Press that it based its calculations on "data collected during our field investigation work. This investigation included a thorough examination of the site spill characteristics including factors such as surface area and depth of soil impacted, and soil porosity." The company would not elaborate....
In a phone conference with the administrator of the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, Dalrymple says he's worried that pipeline regulations fall short in protecting rural areas from spills.
He asked the administrator to look over the requirements for rural pipeline safety.
The governor also requested that the agency keep him abreast of the investigation into the Tesoro pipeline spill near Tioga - the largest pipeline spill in the state.
Dalrymple also contacted a vice president at Tesoro for an update on what the company is doing to improve safety along the pipeline that failed.
The Tesoro exec said the company has monitors along the entire pipeline north of Mandan, as well as shut-off valves on both sides of the Missouri River.
Associated Press in Bismarck
theguardian.com,
...Scientists (click here) who helped measure oil spilled from a broken BP well into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 are questioning the methodology used to estimate the amount of crude that recently leaked from a ruptured pipeline into a wheat field in northwestern North Dakota.
Tesoro said it came up with its more than 20,000-barrel spill estimate using ground analysis. But oil spill experts say a more accurate assessment likely would come from calculating how much crude went into the pipeline versus what was supposed to come out at its terminus.
Farmer Steve Jensen discovered the North Dakota oil spill the size of seven football fields while harvesting wheat 29 September. Tesoro first estimated the spill at its underground pipeline near Tioga at 750 barrels. About a week later, the San Antonio, Texas-based company increased the estimate to 20,600 barrels, or some 865,000 gallons, making it one of the largest spills in North Dakota history.
Tesoro said in a statement to the Associated Press that it based its calculations on "data collected during our field investigation work. This investigation included a thorough examination of the site spill characteristics including factors such as surface area and depth of soil impacted, and soil porosity." The company would not elaborate....
