Read Today's update from Bakersfield....
Would anyone be down there to let us know if the pipe is on yet?
From the news:
Crew gaining on firey well
December 3, 1998
By BOB CHRISTIE
Californian staff writer
e-mail: bchristie@bakersfield.com
Firefighters battling a blaze at a wildcat well that blew out last week near Lost Hills have made significant progress and now are close to being able to assess how they will stop the flow
of natural gas.
The five-man crew from Houston-based Boots & Coots International Well
Control, backed up by dozens of local oil field workers, have removed the vast majority of the destroyed well drilling rig and the well's blowout preventer.
That clears the way for an attempt as early as this morning to move in a long pipe designed to direct the flames away from the base of the well, allowing Boots & Coots crews to examine the well piping, according to Dave Ward, a battalion chief with the Kern County Fire Department. Instead of the smoky, rolling fireball that has boiled around the well since Nov. 23, a steady stream of gas now shoots straight into the air and burns cleanly.
"It's just like a well-adjusted flame on a torch," Ward said. "It's getting all the air it needs to burn clean, so there's no smoke at all. It's clean as it can be."
The well exploded in a huge fireball at 8:30 on the night of Nov. 23, only minutes after the 17 men working the site fled. Crews from Nabors Drilling USA and contractors had been trying to clear a "gas kick" that had entered the well bore when they lost control of the well and the gas forced its way to the surface.
The well was being drilled by Bellevue Resources Inc., a subsidiary of Elk Point Resources Inc. of Calgary, Canada. Eleven other U.S. and Canadian oil and gas companies own a share of the well.
The Texas firefighters will attempt to place a new shutoff valve and blowout preventer onto the well casing if it is not severely damaged. They probably won't try to snuff out the flames before attempting that procedure. If the casing is severely damaged or the gas is flowing around the casing, a relief well already in the planning stages may need to be drilled.
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