Chevron's Pa. Wild Gas Well UPDATE: 2 Big Unknowns: Why Propane Tank Near Well, How To Stop Blazing Gas. Local Describes Event (Fire Video)
Chevron’s fracking wild well crisis in southern Pennsylvania on 11 Feb. 2014, its latest among a long list of environmental and humanitarian disasters.
UPDATE #6: Feb 12 4:15 P.M. EST
As the investigation begins on what a ”highly unique” wild well subsurface blaze near the Pennsylvania and West Virginia border in Bobtown, one issue destined to be major is a large propane truck that was parked near the gas well. It is believed, at least by locals, that the truck exploded before the well did.
There have only been a handfull of other subsurface gas fires in the nation, according to Wild Well Company that has yet to advise that they know how to stop the gas fire.
Scott C’One was working about half of a mile from Chevron’s 7H well pad when he heard the explosion.
“Basically, it was like a sonic boom,” C’One said. “You could feel a little bit of vibration in the ground, and the loud hissing sound. I knew exactly what it was.
The explosion occurred around 6:45 A.M. Tuesday morning where twenty workers were in the last stage of the fracking process. The blast at the Marcellus Shale frack well left it burning with such an intense heat, firefighters and other first reponders are being kept away from it and thus far, there has been no public statement on how the gas fire will be controlled.
“We were probably anywhere from 600 to 800 yards away down over the hill,” C’One said. “You could just literally, it felt like warm air, spring air, coming down over the hillside. It’s very, very hot.”
C’One, who’s worked in the energy industry six years, said that typically, safety is a top priority in the industry.
“Nothing is conducted with, ‘Okay, let’s do this job.’ Every single morning when you report for your shift, you have what’s called a JSA meeting. It’s a standard. You have a roll call, everybody signs in on that sheet so in case there is an accident of this magnitude, you are to report to a muster point. At that point, there’s a roll call,” he said.
“I did hear there was a large propane truck that was parked near the actual well, which would have been a no-no,” C’One told WTAE. “That initial boom was probably that propane truck that exploded. From that point on, that percussion could have annihilated the well head.”
Now, the only thing officials can do is to let the well burn, they say. (See video below)
“Ironically, the best thing to do is to let it burn, because you know where the gas is. If the fire were to go out, the gas would find another ignition source somewhere,” said Greg Leathers of Greene County Emergency Management.
Source: WTAE
UPDATE #5: Feb. 11, 2014 8:00 PM
Here’s a video (below) of Chevron’s latest disaster. The fire still rages at its frack well where a gas explosion occurred early Tuesday morning.
“It’s unique in that it’s not a flare going up, not a finger of flame going up from a gas well,” said state Department of Environmental Protection spokesman John Poister Tuesday morning.
Officials said 20 to 30 workers were at the site, that is off a dirt access road about a mile from Water Tank Road. The DEP still says it does not know what triggered the explosion. An investigation is underway and Houston-based chemical fire experts of Wild Well company are on the scene. The fire is too hot for firefighters to get near it.
Chevron Corp., operator of the site, flew in a Wild Well Control team from Houston. The team was expected on location by 4 P.M..
The fire’s heat and risk of further explosions forced firefighters back to safe areas.
State troopers from Waynesburg barracks closed the road to traffic and have a half-mile perimeter around the site.
Reports indicate no schools, homes or businesses are in the area and smoke billowing from the fires is not believed to be toxic (of course).
Firefighters say it might take days before they can approach the fire safely.
A large propane truck on the well pad also caught fire and exploded.
The well, Lanco 7H, was in the last stage before production. Rig hand says that workers use steel pipe to connect it to Chevron’s gas-gathering pipeline network. Lanco 7H was one of a trio of wells drilled on a shared pad in March of 2012.
“Although the incident was originally thought to be a blowout, which means a loss of control at the well head while drilling, the fact that drilling was completed some time back suggests that there are other factors responsible.”
While Americans on Facebook offer prayers and hopes on for the missing worker, one Facebook user, Dave Brown, has this to say:
“Tragedy. But when employees are worked 7 days a week 10 to 12 hours a day. Mistakes happen.
Source: Rig Hands, Facebook
UPDATE #4: Feb. 11, 2014 6:30 P.M. EST
Chevron issued its second statement regarding it wild fracking well:
Feb. 11, 2014, 6:30 p.m. EST – One contracted employee is currently still unaccounted for in Greene County, Pennsylvania (Dunkard Township), and another contracted employee was taken to the hospital for minor injuries and has since been released. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of these individuals.
Chevron has initiated its emergency response procedures. Chevron personnel immediately responded to the fire and called in assistance from Wild Well Control. Representatives of Wild Well Control are currently on-site and working with us to develop plans to safely address the situation.
Chevron is working cooperatively with local, state and federal agencies and emergency response organizations to assess the current situation and respond to the incident. We want to specifically express our appreciation to the Pennsylvania State Police and our local fire departments for their ongoing support in this incident.
Chevron would like to express our sincere regret to those who may be affected by the incident. We’re working to contain the fire and ensure the safety of our employees, contractors and the surrounding community. We will provide updates as more information becomes available.
If any neighbors have concerns, they can call a Chevron toll-free line: 1-877-847-8408.
UPDATE #3: Feb 11. 2014 6:00 P.M. EST
Department of Environmental Protection spokesman John Poister said Chevron’s well, a fracking well, is in a rural area where no homes or schools are nearby. He said a DEP team at the site found no signs of threats to public health, noting that the fire was burning off volatile organic compounds in the gas.
The fire continues to burn so hot, the DEP crews have to stay about 300 yards away, he said.
The agency suspects the explosion and fire occurred on the surface of the well and suspect the fire wasn’t caused by an explosion inside the well itself, what is known as a blowout.
A blowout results from a rapid increase in oil or gas pressure that ruptures a well. He said further investigation will be needed.
Poister said of the missing worker, everyone “just hopes for the best.”
Chevron had completed drilling and fracking (hydraulically fracturing) the well. The company was in the final stages of using steel pipe to hook it up to a pipeline distribution network for production, he said.
UPDATE #2: Feb. 11, 2014, 1:00 P.M. EST
The Chevron gas well that exploded was a shale well. Witnesses, including some who were underground in a nearby coal mine, told WKSU reporter Tim Rudell that they were jolted by the force of the blast.
UPDATE #1: Feb 11, 2014, 12:00 P.M. EST
News reporters are reporting the time of the fire and explosion as being later and later. The latest report says it began “shortly before 8:00 A.M.
Have a look at what a quick search on YouTube shows of the pain and suffering caused by Chevron’s extracting oil and gas around the world. Everywhere this needless drilling and extracting occurs, there is pain, suffering, and death
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Original story
One worker has been injured and another remains missing in a massive Chevron natural gas well explosion and fire in southwestern Pennsylvania, within miles of West Virginia’s border.
Chevron spokesman Trip Oliver says the fire was reported at about 6:45 A.M. at the Lanco 7H well in Dunkard Township, near Bobtown.
Workers had been connecting the well to a network of pipes to carry gas from the site.
The blaze is still raging at the facility in Greene County, about 50 miles south of Pittsburgh, just north of the West Virginia border. Emergency dispatchers say at least three fire companies have responded.
Oliver says one person is reported hospitalized and another is unaccounted for. No identities had been released at 12:00 noon EST.
Personnel “immediately responded to the fire” and called in assistance from Wild Well Control, according to the Chevron spokesperson.
Ambulance and emergency medical crews have been summoned to the scene, and state police have reportedly set up a half-mile perimeter.
Crews say intense flames have kept them from getting too close to the well.
In support of the fossil fuel industry, not one other newspaper has used “Chevron” in its title about this lethal explosion, as most easily viewed in a Google searcih.
Photo Credit: NewsChopper 2/KDKA
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Whistler Blowers, Insiders
How many times….? How many lives…. ? How much suffering for this corporate get rich quick energy? Deep sympathy to workers and significant others.
I assume you would rather have the whole world partying than working for a living? Well, for your information, more people die from drunkards driving home from parties than die sober either from working for a living or fighting in wars. I for one choose to live trying to survive with the other animals.
And this gas isn’t even for Americans to use. It will be piped to Baltimore, liquified, and exported.
Because of evil human beings, as the earth is now endangered from global warming, the universe too is now in a state of imbalance after all that moon rock was transported back to the earth during the Apollo missions. In order to position ourselves to save the universe from utter destruction, the first step is saving the world by supplying them with our natural gas. We must take all those rocks back to the moon where they belong! In order to get those rocks back there, we will need to further pollute the earth even if that means mass extinction by killing every filthy, disease infested humanoid!
I wish you had this much concern for soldiers dying.
I have considerable concern for soldiers dying, and I gather Ms. Dupre does too. They wouldn’t be dying if we hadn’t put them in harm’s way based on lies. Every war since WW2 was based on lies, and our entry into WW2 was based on Roosevelt’s deliberately letting the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor so he could get the US embroiled in the war in Europe. That was nevertheless in balance a “just war,” although Allied firebombings and nuclear bombings were unpardonable war crimes.
In any event, I have personally known many Americans killed or wounded in combat, as have most of us. We have been in a state of perpetual war since the early 1800s, with only a few brief pauses.
No other nation has such an infamous record.
My fallen friends died and were wounded for nothing worth fighting for in wars of aggression disguised as “just wars.” I deeply regret any of our soldiers agreed to serve, and I grieve for all of them, because they all have been damaged one way or another. And I grieve for our countrymen and women who have been made fearful and brutal by our war-loving culture.
I curse our government for killing our soldiers and over 15 million foreigners in 37 victim nations and overthrowing dozens of regimes for nothing except ideology and corporate profit. Taken together, those constitute the worst war crimes in human history.
It’s no wonder America is considered by other countries to be the greatest threat to world peace. I fervently hope the American people will wake from this mass delusion and stop the military-industrial complex, for good, except for defense against invasion of our own land.
Please never insinuate that I don’t care about our soldiers – and about you, for that matter.
Oh Mr. Foobar – What a sad mistake you make here.
You’ve apparently not read my many articles written out of concern for soldiers dying – ours and others throughout the world injured by American troops or by our CIA and contractors’ manipulations. You possibly are unfamiliar with the root of these casualties. Are you aware of why most of these deaths and dying happens? For oil and gas – for our addiction to fossil fuels and a warped thinking that we can steal other nations’ resources – and use our less educated and more marginalized youth to die for this cause. Surely you know better than to think our troops die for anything remotely humanitarian.
So, you see, every article I write about the dirty, dangerous and unhealthy non-renewable energy is for our suffering troops as much as anyone else, if not even more.
There was natural gas in the ground long before the advent of man. That gas is carbon based meaning that it originated from rotting lifeforms. This, in turn, means that plants and animals went extinct long before mankind trotted his muddy stinking feet upon the face of the earth. So, on occasion, gas would leak out from the ground and then lightning would strike it causing a mysterious explosion. In turn, the stupid fundamentalists would fall upon the earth to worship it. And then sometimes huge rocks would slam into the earth and volcanoes would erupt. Oh, why can’t the moon be made out of cream cheese and the sun made out of butterscotch? Why can’t we all get along like they do in both Canada and Tellietubbie Land? Why does life have to be so interesting and dangerous? Why can’t we all just be equal and responsible instead? Why why why?
http://www.watchmanscry.com/images/superbowl/flag1.jpg
Notice the chevron symbolism at the half-time Super Bowl celebration.
There’s a method of fracking that uses liquid propane and gel to force sand into the cracked shale. They recover the propane when they start flowing the well. No idea if that was used here, but it might explain the propane truck. The company that does it is called Gasfrac and they’re pretty secretive about where it’s used. No mention of the accident on their site.