Some more news about the blowout. Read past the information in regards to the blow out, There is some hinting at how important this find might be.
Crew begins task of taming raging
well fire
Filed: November 25, 1998
By BOB CHRISTIE
Californian staff writer
Well control specialists braved heat intense enough to melt steel
Wednesday as they began what may be a weeks-long effort to cap a
natural gas well that exploded near Lost Hills on Monday night.
A four-man firefighting team from Boots & Coots International Well
Control, headed by 20-year veteran James Tuppen, used bulldozers to
begin clearing the shattered hulks of support equipment from around the
now-destroyed drilling rig at the site.
What once added up to millions of dollars worth of equipment must now
be dragged, pushed or pulled away from the well, which is spewing
millions of cubic feet of natural gas and condensed hydrocarbons each
day, feeding an immense orange fireball visible for miles.
Tuppen's crew, occasionally soaking their fire resistant clothing with
water, worked within 30 feet of the blazing well on foot and in
bulldozers equipped with metal cab covers to protect the driver. A fifth
member of the team acts as a hazardous materials specialist and support
person.
Spectators 100 yards away needed to shield themselves from the heat,
the howl of the flames reminiscent of a jet fighter's takeoff roar.
"For right now we're going to clear the debris around the well," Tuppen
said during a break in the dawn-to-dusk operation. "Then we'll assess
again. Hopefully, it will be good news."
Tuppen said he suspects there isn't any major damage to the well pipe,
known as casing, that is cemented into the ground, or to the well head
itself.
After the debris is removed, the firefighters will try to douse the flames
with water and an explosive charge. Another well may need to be drilled
and linked to the existing well to relieve pressure.
"I've been saying a week on moving the rig off if we don't run into any
problems," Tuppen said.
The Boots & Coots crew working at Lost Hills has battled hundreds of oil
and gas well fires and spent months extinguishing well blazes in Kuwait
after the Persian Gulf War ended. Tuppen said this fire is more
complicated than the Kuwaiti infernos, mainly because of the preliminary
work needed to remove shattered equipment. It also is unusual because of
its location.
"You just don't see stuff like this in California," he said. "On a scale of
one to 10, this is a big one."
No one was injured when the crew of the contracted Nabors Drilling USA
rig lost control of the exploratory wildcat well at 8:30 p.m. Monday.
Seventeen people were at the site when the well blew, but all escaped
before the rig was engulfed in flames and collapsed.
On Monday, the drilling rig's crew had experienced a "gas kick," an
uncontrolled flow of natural gas into a well bore, and was working to
clear the gas from the well casing when the accident happened, said Hal
Bopp, district deputy for the state Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal
Resources.
The crew realized the well was out of control minutes before it exploded
and cleared the area.
"Due to their professionalism nobody was hurt," Bopp said. "They deserve
a lot of credit."
The well is operated by Bellevue Resources Inc., a subsidiary of the small
Canadian independent oil and gas company Elk Point Resources Inc., on
land leased from Chevron. Seven other Canadian firms and one U.S.
company also own a share of the well.
Bellevue's president, Aidan Walsh, would not confirm what caused the
crew to lose control of the well, saying it was too soon to determine and
that his company's focus was on controlling the fire and capping the well.
"I'm just very thankful no one was injured. That's the first question I
asked," Walsh said. "It's an appropriate Thanksgiving."
Walsh may be thankful for more than the safety of the workers.
Although there is no estimate on the amount of natural gas erupting from
the well, it is enormous. The rig had been on site since May, and had
drilled 17,640 feet, almost 31Ú2 miles deep.
The blowout is providing clear evidence of a gas discovery, and if proven
to be commercial, it would be the deepest in the state and likely the
most significant gas field in Kern County.
The deepest producing well in California at Rio Viejo field near Old River
and Copus roads southwest of Bakersfield, bottoms out around 14,500
feet.
Although other oil fields in Kern also produce gas, only Occidental
Petroleum's Elk Hills field produces large quantities, Bopp said. Kern also
doesn't have any significant production from very deep wells.
The Bellevue well is about 11Ú2 miles from the nearest proven oil field,
Lost Hills. But that field holds mainly oil, and at depths averaging only
4,500 feet, more than two miles shallower than the depth of the burning
well.
"Its definitely positive that there are hydrocarbons," Walsh said.
"Certainly it could have significant potential." |
