Colorado home explosion tied to Anadarko gas well

[trapped_in_tx]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/colora...x_picks&cx_tag=collabctx&cx_artPos=6#cxrecs_s

Anyone hear about this?

If you can't get to the article, use Google. You will have no difficulty finding other articles.

This happened not far from where I live and very close to where we go to church. I didn't know the men who died but I know people who did.

I'm not clear on the details... But shouldn't the regulatory restrictions on oil and gas wells already control the proper execution of procedures related to abandoned lines? Given all of the crazy rules I have encountered related to land development, utilities, and water rights (a biggie here in the high desert) it's hard for me to believe that abandoning an underground line for transporting raw natural gas doesn't at least involve some inspections.

Each state is different so perhaps Colorado doesn't have the regulations? I'd almost be more inclined to believe that the regulatory bureaucracy was incompetent.

 

[Colorado_Poke]

Anyone hear about this?

I've been meaning to get to your post for a few days, but was waiting until I was at a keyboard - 99% of the time I'm accessing the board from my phone.

I'm not clear on the details... But shouldn't the regulatory restrictions on oil and gas wells already control the proper execution of procedures related to abandoned lines? Given all of the crazy rules I have encountered related to land development, utilities, and water rights (a biggie here in the high desert) it's hard for me to believe that abandoning an underground line for transporting raw natural gas doesn't at least involve some inspections.

Each state is different so perhaps Colorado doesn't have the regulations? I'd almost be more inclined to believe that the regulatory bureaucracy was incompetent.

Before I give my understanding of the situation and my personal opinions, in full disclosure I'll state that I work for a natural gas company, although we do not have any operations in Colorado.

My understanding of what happened:

• Anadarko bought around 3.000 natural gas wells in the early 90s.
• For a long period of time, the wells were producing and nothing happened.
• Several years ago, Anadarko temporarily shut-in the well in question, along with many of its other wells in the area.
• During this time, a new housing development went in very closeby.
• During excavation of the housing development, the gathering line associated with the well in question was severed.
  • Just for your own understanding, all natural gas wells have gathering lines (pipelines buried usually around 5-10 feet underground) that carry gas from individual wells to a larger pipeline.
• Several months ago, Anadarko opened up the well for production again.
• Natural gas and propane (in gas form) leaked from the severed gathering line into the soil nearby.
• Two men nearby caused an explosion when they lit a flame in the basement of the exploding house while installing a water heater. Both men died, and the wife of one of the men was injured.

This obviously begs the questions - who was at fault, and could anything have been done to prevent this?

My personal opinions:

• The company performing the excavation working in the early stages of the development didn't know they had severed a gathering line. This was either due to them not performing due diligence about buried gas and electrical lines nearby, or Anadarko not taking proper steps to inform the developers about buried gas lines in the vicinity.
• Before Anadarko opened the nearby well for production again, they did not pressure test the gathering line to ensure there were no leaks. Such a test would likely have identified that the gathering line was severed. I'm not sure whether Colorado currently has regulations that require such pressure testing to be performed before "turning on" a shut-in well. As a side note, Colorado does have the most stringent regulations in the country regarding oil and gas development - even more so than California.
• Ultimately, Anadarko will be held liable for the explosion. Although the construction company may ultimately be responsible for severing the gathering line in the first place, Anadarko should have pressure tested the gathering line before it re-commenced production on the nearby well.
• This unfortunate incident had nothing to do with fracking, the close proximity of the well to the housing development, or any common risks in the oil and gas industry (the press conference by the local investigators said as much). This was due to a set of unusual circumstances (likely oversights by Anadarko and the construction company) that led to the death of two individuals.

You and your family shouldn't be concerned about a similar incident happening to you. This was a very unusual and unfortunate set of circumstances likely caused by oversight of key individuals or the companies involved.

Feel free to ask me any questions if you have any concerns. I'll answer to the best of my abilities, although I'm only an accountant, not an engineer who directly deals with these sorts of issues!

 

[trapped_in_tx]

Thanks CP.

I'm on the west side of Longmont. No wells anywhere nearby to cause me concern.

You seem to know more about what the more technical progression of events look like and that's one of the things I was hoping someone would be able to highlight.

I'm not the least bit surprised that CO is the most regulated state for oil and gas. Disappointed to some extent bit not surprised. I say that because I have very low confidence that state lawmakers can craft legislation that is anything short of a complete mess and/or shadow written by lawyers for environmental groups.

The one thing that does surprise me is that with all that regulation they don't require a state inspected pressure test of a buried line entering or reentering service.

Homebuilders are required to perform pressure testing of water and gas lines in houses and visibility demonstrate that they maintain pressure to city inspectors. I would have expected something similar for raw natural gas since it is odorless and leaks pose a hidden danger.

I'm not excited about my state tax dollars potentially being wasted to try and enforce a bunch of new regulations or perform a host of pointless inspections if they don't already perform the most important inspection, which is pressure testing those buried lines.